A 26-year-old delivery rider who left a live arowana fish in his car for several hours, resulting in its death, was fined S$2,000 by a Singapore court on Thursday, March 5.
Mohamad Isman Rosli pleaded guilty to one count of mischief after leaving the fish unattended in his vehicle for at least four hours. The arowana, valued at S$1,500, had been collected for delivery to a customer. Another charge, for lying to a police officer about returning the fish to the farm, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court documents revealed that Isman was working part-time as a delivery rider with Lalamove at the time of the incident in October 2025.
On October 7, he accepted a job through the delivery platform to pick up an Asian red arowana from Fu Long Aquatics and deliver it to a customer.
He collected the fish at around 9 pm that evening. The fish had been packed in a plastic bag, and Isman was aware that it was a live animal that required proper handling.
However, about 40 minutes after the pickup, the delivery assignment was cancelled due to a glitch in the application. Instead of returning the fish to the farm or arranging to complete the delivery, Isman left it in the plastic bag inside his car while he continued with other delivery jobs.
It was only around 1 am the following day that he returned to the fish farm, but it had already closed. He then took the fish home and discovered that it had died. Rather than informing the seller or the customer, Isman disposed of the fish by throwing it down a rubbish chute.
A representative from the fish farm filed a police report on October 8 after the fish could not be accounted for and Isman could not be contacted.
When questioned by the police a day later, Isman falsely claimed that he had returned the fish to the farm at around 11.45 pm on October 7. This led investigators to spend time reviewing police camera footage and conducting further inquiries.
He later admitted that he had thrown the dead fish away after officers confronted him with footage from cameras near his residential block.
The court heard that Isman did not compensate the customer for the loss of the fish. Prosecutors sought a fine of between S$2,000 and S$3,000, noting the financial loss suffered by the victim and the resources spent investigating the false statement.
For mischief, he could have faced a jail term of up to one year, a fine, or both. The court ultimately imposed a S$2,000 fine.
