SINGAPORE - Unhappy that he was being followed by auxiliary police officers who had earlier approached him for littering, a 53-year-old man kicked one of them on the knees and even threw a bicycle at them.

Sulaiman Shaik Alladin was jailed for 18 weeks on Friday (Dec 18).

He pleaded guilty to two charges of using threatening words and behaviour at a public servant, as well as one count each of attempting to use criminal force on the officers and of voluntarily causing hurt to one of them.

Court documents state that the two Certis auxiliary police officers were performing anti-littering enforcement duties near Tampines Mall on June 6 at about 3.50pm. They had been engaged by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to do so.

The officers spotted Sulaiman throwing a cigarette butt on the ground and approached him.

Identifying themselves as NEA enforcement officers, they asked for his particulars but he refused and walked away from them.

They followed him as he walked to the park connector beside Block 268, Tampines Street 21.

The Certis officers later told him to cooperate with them so that they could issue him a summons for littering, the court heard.

Sulaiman responded by aggressively pointing, shouting and hurling vulgarities at the officers. He also waved his fist at one of them.

He subsequently stopped walking and gave one of the officers a card.

But it was not his NRIC, and the officer asked Sulaiman to provide his actual identification document.

After the man shouted and walked away, the officers followed him.

Sulaiman then turned around, pushed one of them on the right shoulder and kicked him in the knees.

He picked up a bicycle parked on the footpath and threw it at the officers, but it landed a distance in front of them.

On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua urged the court to jail Sulaiman for 18 weeks.

The DPP noted that the man had been convicted of using abusive words, among other things, in January this year and was sentenced to four weeks' jail.

He had been sent for a psychiatric evaluation at the Institute of Mental Health but was found to not have any signs of mental illness at the time of the offences, said DPP Chua.

Pleading for leniency, Sulaiman said he is the sole breadwinner of his family and has three schoolgoing children.

In sentencing him, District Judge Marvin Bay said: "We cannot tolerate the wanton abuse and assault of public officers, who are merely doing their job in performing enforcement duties."

The judge also told the man that he should set a good example for his children.

For each count of using threatening words and behaviour to a public servant, Sulaiman could have been jailed for up to two years, or fined up to $10,000, or both.

He could also have been sentenced to a maximum of seven years' jail, or fined, or caned, or given any combination of suc

h punishments, for voluntarily causing hurt to the Certis officer.

For attempting to use criminal force on the officers, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.