A tuk-tuk driver was handed a two-year prison sentence for dousing four women with boiling cooking oil and ordered to pay compensation at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday.

Chan Soeun, 33, was charged with “committing an act of violence with aggravating circumstances” under Article 218 of Penal Code, according to judge Heng Sokna.

“Only four months of his sentence will be served, the rest was suspended,” Sokna said, adding that Soeun was also ordered to pay four million riel (about $1,000) compensation to his victims.

The court heard that on August 13 Soeun drove his tuk-tuk to the entrance of Depo market in Tuol Kork district, where he got into a row with another tuk-tuk driver who accused him of throwing an empty coffee cup over his head.

Two of the man’s friends, also tuk-tuk drivers, joined the aggrieved man in beating Soeun, who grabbed an oil-filled cooking pan from a snack vendor and attempted to douse his assailants with oil.

But instead the oil fell on four female shoppers, all of whom were injured, two seriously.

Soeun, who was not arrested until September 13, told the court he had no intention to hurt the victims.

“I was trying to defend myself because they [the three tuk-tuk drivers] had attacked and started beating me,” he said. “I deeply regret my unintentional mistake.”