SINGAPORE - A 24-year-old man was on Wednesday (May 9) found guilty of trying to use a stun gun on a police officer.

Sivakandesh, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges, including attempting to cause hurt to a public servant.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Nim said that on Jan 10 last year, the police were alerted to a public disturbance at a carpark at Block 624, Yishun Ring Road.

There, they came across Sivakandesh, who was behaving suspiciously in a car that was parked there. Through investigations, the police later established that Sivakandesh had found the passenger door of the car unlocked, and boarded the vehicle to steal a pair of sunglasses worth $150 and a green purse containing $87.30.

When police officers approached him, Sivakandesh lied that the car was his. When they asked him for his particulars, he showed them an expired passport belonging to someone named Sivaganesh and a name card belonging to the car owner, Mr Ong Fook Thim.

Suspecting Sivakandesh of criminal offences, the officers decided to arrest him. He responded by struggling and attempting to use a stun gun on police officer Lim Kok Hwee, 42.

However, the officer managed to avoid the attack in time and proceeded to disarm him.

During a subsequent search, Sivakandesh was also found to possess a flick knife.

Sivakandesh was also found guilty of two previous incidents involving police officers.

In August 2016, he hit a police officer on the nose after being found in possession of a stun gun.

A month later, after being arrested for suspected criminal offences, Sivakandesh verbally abused a police officer and spat at him while in the police vehicle.

In the light of his criminal history, DPP Nim called for a sentence of five years of corrective training in addition to 209 days of imprisonment, emphasising the "striking need for deterrence" in his case. Corrective training is a prison regime for repeat offenders without the usual one-third remission for good behaviour.

Sivakandesh is expected to be sentenced on June 6.

For voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant in discharge of his duty, he could be given up to seven years' jail, a fine, caning, or a combination of the three.

For committing theft, Sivakandesh could be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

He could be sentenced to jail of up to five years and at least six strokes of the cane, for unlawfully possessing a weapon.