SINGAPORE, Nov 21 — After a 15-year-old girl got to know him on the messaging platform Telegram and took rides in his car, she asked if he had any methamphetamine to sell.
Muhammad Raziff Hisham agreed to smoke the controlled drug, also known as “ice”, with the girl and her friend in a multi-storey car park at Sengkang.
Yesterday, the freelance delivery driver, 32, was sentenced to 3.5 years’ jail.
Raziff pleaded guilty to two charges of drug consumption and possession.
He also pleaded guilty to one charge of letting a young person consume a controlled drug — only the second prosecution for this offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
In September, a 28-year-old woman became the first to be prosecuted for the offence, which came into effect in August last year.
The court heard that Raziff got to know one of the girls, identified in court documents only as Y, through a Telegram group chat.
He frequently gave her rides and she occasionally paid him for them.
On the evening of April 26, Y’s friend — identified as X — asked her if she knew any drug suppliers, as she wanted to buy meth.Y then approached Raziff who told her the prices.
The two girls agreed to pool money to buy the drugs from Raziff.When Y asked if they could smoke it together, he agreed.
At about 4am the next day, he picked them up from Y’s residence and drove them to the car park at 278 Compassvale Bow.
They smoked the drug in his car till about 7am.
The girls did not pay Raziff.The next morning, Central Narcotics Bureau officers acted on information received and arrested X.
Raziff was arrested on May 4 at a Hougang car park as part of follow-up operations.
He admitted to taking meth since late 2019 and buying it from a person identified as Faizal.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Wee Hong Shern said that Raziff was retrenched from his job as a steersman — a person who steers a boat or ship — last year and became “deeply stressed”.
He was also trying to have a child with his wife, and his income from driving for ride-hailing firm Grab was “significantly less” than what he used to earn.
“He confided his woes to some of his friends… they then introduced him to illicit drugs and promised that consuming them would ease his worries and alleviate his stress and anxiety,” Wee added.
The lawyer said that the girls grew curious about drugs when he told them he had consumed them before, asking him to provide them with drugs and teach them how to take them.
While Raziff “immediately refused their requests”, he succumbed after they persisted.
He did it partly so they would stop contacting him, Wee added.
For permitting a young person to consume controlled drugs, Raziff could have been jailed for up to 10 years.
For consuming and possessing a specified or controlled drug, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$20,000 (RM60,922), or both. — TODAY
