SINGAPORE - A rag-and-bone man slapped a town council property officer who had instructed a cleaning supervisor to remove cardboard outside his rental flat, a court heard.

On Monday (Feb 19) Khor Deng Yoeng, 45, was sentenced to three months' jail for causing hurt to Mr Sim Hang Whatt, 55, a property officer of Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council, at the cleaners' site office at Block 181 Marsiling Road multi-storey carpark on Feb 1 last year.

Khor was also jailed for separate theft offences. He was given two weeks' jail for stealing a box of Abercrombie perfume worth $108 from Metro department store at Causeway Point in Woodlands Square and and four weeks' jail for theft of a Louis Vuitton handbag worth $1,190 at the same place.

District Judge Mathew Joseph ordered the three-month and four-week sentences to run consecutively.

The court heard that Mr Sim was informed by his cleaning supervisor on Jan 31 last year that the corridor outside Khor's flat was cluttered with a significant pile of cardboard.

After seeing photographs of the clutter, Mr Sim was concerned that it may present a fire hazard.

He then told the cleaning supervisor to get permission from Khor to remove the two trolleys of cardboard from the corridor. But only Khor's daughter was at home when the cleaners arrived so the cardboard was removed and kept temporarily in the cleaners' site office at the multi-storey carpark in case he wanted them back.

The next day, Khor went to the cleaners' site office and demanded to know who had instructed the cleaners to remove his cardboard.

Later, when he met Mr Sim, Khor pushed him and demanded that he produce an official document to remove the cardboard.

Despite Mr Sim's explanation that he was performing his duty as a public servant, Khor slapped him on both sides of the neck area.

Khor's theft of the perfume at Metro at Causeway Point on July 4 last year was recorded by closed-circuit television. He was seen passing the box of perfume to his wife, who did not know that it had been stolen.

While out on court bail, he stole the LV bag from a Money Max sales executive on Sept 1 while she was involved in a road show at Causeway Point.

His identity was later established via CCTV when he tried to pawn the LV bag at Money Max pawnshop at Woodlands Centre.

Two other charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.