A judge said he found it "mystifying" how police issued licences to nightclub security officers when sentencing a bouncer to two months in jail on Thursday for assaulting a patron.
Ahmad Zaki Mohd Said, 35, had been found guilty and convicted on Oct 8 after an eight-day trial. He, Firdauz Ismail, 26 and Iskandar Sanip, 31 assaulted crane operator Chee Thin Kam, 30, so viciously, they left a shoe print on his face. The attack took place at about 3am on Feb 23 last year after they escorted him out of St James Power Station.
Pleading for a lenient sentence, Ahmad Zaki's lawyer, Mr V. Ramesh, said that the police had suspended Ahmad Zaki's security officer licence and may now bar him completely from security work.
District Judge Low Wee Ping then said: "The court is comforted that bouncers have to be licensed by police but curious that Firdauz continued to be licensed although he had been convicted in 2011 of beating up three patrons at the same club."
He said that this could be an "oversight" on the part of the police and added that it was a matter of public interest why the licence issued to Firdauz was not revoked.
Referring to a photograph of Mr Chee's injured face, the judge said: "This court had never seen a shoe print mark on a victim's face... ever."
Firdauz received the stiffest sentence of three months' jail as he had a similar conviction two years ago. Iskandar was jailed for three weeks. A fourth bouncer, Mazlan Arsad, 34, was fined $1,500 for using criminal force in snatching away the cellphone of Mr Chee's wife, Ms Chan Chai Yee, 23.
