Man scuffled with neighbour in parking dispute, hurled rocks at his car outside landed house

SINGAPORE – A longstanding dispute between neighbours over parking-related matters escalated into a scuffle between two men in August 2024.

According to court documents, Seah Chin Leong also hurled bottles towards a car belonging to his neighbour’s father and verbally abused his neighbour with vulgar language.

Seah, 43, was living in a landed property near Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 while his neighbour, Neo Shi Ming, 37, resided in a house nearby.

On Feb 9, Seah, who has since moved from the property, pleaded guilty to offences including harassment and fighting in a public place.

The prosecution had described Neo as a co-accused, but court documents did not mention if he has been charged or dealt with earlier.

Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Chye Jer Yuan said Seah and his family moved into their house in or around July 2022.

On Aug 1, 2024, shortly before 3am, Seah confronted Neo over the parking of the latter’s vehicle outside Seah’s home.

A dispute then broke out between the two men, said the APP, adding: “The accused then punched the co-accused on his face and the co-accused retaliated.

“The accused gave a kick in the direction of the co-accused but was held back by his wife before both the accused and co-accused fell to the ground. The co-accused punched the accused when the accused was on the ground.”

Neo’s sister alerted the police, and he went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he was later discharged with “head injury advice” and given a day of outpatient sick leave.

Meanwhile, Seah went to Sengkang General Hospital and was found to have superficial abrasions at areas including his knees. He was given four days of outpatient medical leave.

Three months later on Nov 5 at around 12.45am, Seah threw two glass bottles from his house towards a car belonging to Neo’s father.

The vehicle was parked on a road outside Seah’s house and one of the bottles struck the right rear passenger side, damaging a door panel and low skirt panel. The cost of the repair was around $900, according to the quotation provided, said the APP.

Neo alerted the police shortly after 1am that day, saying he had caught his neighbour throwing glass bottles at the vehicle.

A month later, on Dec 25, he alerted the police again, saying that his neighbour had kicked his car.

APP Chye said Seah had also been seen throwing rocks at a family car belonging to Neo, who confronted him.

Seah then hurled vulgarities at Neo at around 2am that day.

On Feb 22, 2025, Seah was seen burning joss paper in a bin on a public road outside his own home at around 3.30am, the court heard. Concerned that the flames were near a car belonging to the Neo family, a person, who was not named in court documents, used a garden spray to douse the burning joss paper.

A dispute then broke out, which saw Seah using a metal stick to hit the Neo family’s gate. The cost to replace the gate was estimated to be between $1,000 and $2,000.

Seah was arrested on May 6, 2025, and he has since forked out more than $3,000 for the damage caused. He will be sentenced on Feb 24.