Drink driver drove against traffic to avoid police
Drink driver jailed seven weeks, fined $4,000 and banned for four years
A man who had been drinking tried to avoid a police roadblock and almost hit another car head-on.
Sales manager Ng Kim Inn, 36, was yesterday jailed for seven weeks, fined $4,000 and banned from driving for four years after admitting to drink driving and rash driving.
The court heard that after a drinking session in Club Street on March 5 last year where he had eight to nine glasses of beer, Ng drove his Land Rover along New Bridge Road towards Jalan Bukit Merah at about 4.40am.
Two Traffic Police officers were on duty at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street, before a roadblock, when they saw him turn right into Upper Cross Street.
Ng then braked abruptly and made an illegal U-turn and encroached into the path of an unidentified car on his left.
He drove against the flow of traffic for about 100m and nearly collided head-on with another car.
He then abruptly made another illegal turn, this time to the left into the multi-storey carpark of Chinatown Point in New Bridge Road.
CAUGHT
He drove to level 3 of the carpark, where the two police officers caught up with him.
When Ng stepped out of his vehicle, his speech was slurred and his eyes were bloodshot, the court heard.
He failed the breathalyser test and was escorted to the Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi Avenue 3 for another test.
His breath-alcohol level was found to be 81 microgrammes in 100ml of breath, more than twice the legal limit.
Ng had a similar conviction for drink driving in 2013.
Pleading for leniency, his lawyer R.S. Wijaya said his client was undergoing emotional turmoil at the time with family and work problems and turned to drinking.
Ng, a sole breadwinner, has since given up his vehicle and found another job after taking a pay cut, said Mr Wijaya.
He could have been fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to 12 months for the repeat offence of drink driving. For rash driving, the maximum punishment is one year's jail and a $5,000 fine.
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