SINGAPORE - A former technician was jailed for six months on Wednesday for hurting his supervisor with a knife.

Teo Kheng Hua, 47, now an odd-job worker, admitted to wounding Mr Ngo Ah Peng, 40, at the void deck of Block 26 Jalan Membina on Nov 6 last year.

A district court heard that they were good friends while working at Aardwolf Pest Kare Singapore.

On Nov 5 last year, Mr Ngo, a senior service supervisor, received a call from Teo to meet at a coffeeshop in Jalan Membina. The victim arrived sometime past midnight.

They sat down and had beer. Mr Ngo noticed that Teo was drunk and started to quarrel with him over issues at work.

Suddenly, Teo bent down and picked up a 12cm-long knife from the grass verge.

Pointing the knife at the victim's face, he said in Hokkien: "You think, I, Andy, do not dare to whack you?''

The victim tried to calm him down and brought him aside to the void deck.

When they reached the void deck, Teo pulled out the knife from his waist and charged at the victim. The victim quickly used his left hand to hold the knife but Teo used it to cut the victim's stomach area. Teo then pulled back his hand, with the knife still in his grasp and cut the victim's left palm, causing it to bleed profusely.

Teo panicked on seeing the cut and told the victim not to disturb him again. He also said he would pay for the victim's medical expenses.

Teo later threw away the knife.

The victim, who was in shock, sat for a while before driving home in his car. His wife brought him to hospital for treatment.

Teo's lawyer, Mr Paul, said his client was deeply traumatized over the entire incident. He said it was unlike him where as a family man, he had in a moment of foolishness, thrown caution to the wind by acting in such a rash manner. Teo lost his job as a result; was embarrassed and ashamed of himself by letting his family down.

He could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned or received any combination of the punishments.