S'porean delivery rider, 26, left customer's S$1,500 arowana in car for 4 hours, threw dead fish in rubbish chute afterwards

A 26-year-old Singaporean man's first job as a part-time Lalamove delivery rider sent him to court after he killed the live fish he was supposed to deliver.

It was an Asian red arowana fish valued at S$1,500.

He had left it in the white plastic bag inside his car for at least four hours without proper care, causing its death, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

When he realised that the fish was dead, he threw it away in a rubbish chute and did not inform the customer or the farm about the incident.

On Mar. 5, Mohamad Isman bin Rosli pleaded guilty to two charges — one for committing mischief that resulted in the death of the fish, and the second for lying to the police that he had returned the fish to the farm.

He was fined S$2,000, in default of two weeks' jail.

Assignment was cancelled

Isman picked the arowana fish up from Fu Long Aquatics around 9pm on Oct. 7, 2025.

About 40 minutes later, the delivery assignment was accidentally cancelled due to a glitch in the Lalamove app, according to court documents.

Isman neither returned the fish to the farm nor delivered it to the customer, but left it in his car while he carried out his other deliveries.

After they were all completed at about 1am, he went back to the farm, but it was already closed.

He then drove back to his home with the fish, and later saw that the fish was dead.

He threw it into a rubbish chute at the void deck of his block, and did not tell the customer or the farm what had happened.

Isman was aware that he was transporting a live fish, the prosecutor said.

He thus knew that he was likely to cause wrongful loss to the customer by killing the fish worth S$1,500.

Mothership understands from a Lalamove representative that the person who ordered the delivery purportedly chose to cancel the order.

Isman allegedly still went ahead and collected the fish. By the time, the order had been cancelled by the user and was no longer deemed a Lalamove order.

There was no glitch on the Lalamove system because a subsequent driver was assigned to the user, but the user allegedly cancelled the order.

Lalamove has a strict policy of not delivering or putting up to deliver living things, as reflected in their terms and conditions, as well as through training to drivers.

His arrest

The day after the assigned delivery, a representative of the farm made a police report of the missing fish.

During a subsequent interview with the police, Isman claimed that he had returned the fish to the farm on Oct. 7 at around 11:45pm.

To investigate the case, the police analysed police camera footage, including from Isman's residential block.

He then confessed that he had thrown away the dead fish and was arrested on Jan. 21, 2026.

As of Feb. 27, he had not made any restitution to the customer.

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