Howard Shaw jailed, fined for third drink driving offence
Shaw family scion Howard Shaw Chai Li, 46, was yesterday jailed for eight weeks and fined $10,000 after he was caught drink driving for the third time.
The grandson of Shaw Organisation's founder, Mr Runme Shaw, was also banned from driving for eight years.
Shaw, who pleaded guilty yesterday, drank about three glasses of white wine around 10pm on Jan 30 and was driving less than four hours later.
He was in Whitley Road at about 3.45am on Jan 31 when police officers stopped him for checks at a roadblock.
One of the officers noticed he reeked of alcohol and arrested Shaw after he failed a breathalyser test.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Soh Weiqi said Shaw underwent a Breath Evidential Analyser test at the Traffic Police headquarters, which revealed he had 88 micrograms (mcg) of alcohol in every 100ml of breath - more than double the prescribed limit of 35mcg.
DPP Soh told District Judge Prem Raj that Shaw was first convicted of drink driving on Feb 19, 1998. He was fined $3,000 and disqualified from driving for two years.
He was convicted of a similar offence on Jan 26, 2006. That time round, he was jailed a week, fined $8,000 and disqualified from driving for four years.
Because of these two earlier convictions, DPP Soh told the court that Shaw was liable for an enhanced punishment, which meant he could be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $30,000.
She then urged the judge to sentence him to at least eight weeks in jail and a fine of $8,000.
She also asked for Shaw to be disqualified from driving for eight years.
In his mitigation, Shaw's lawyer, Mr Terence Tan, suggested the same fine and length of disqualification, but asked for a jail sentence of up to six weeks.
He stressed that Shaw, head of corporate social responsibility at Halcyon Corporate Services, was "unconditionally apologetic".
He added: "Howard knows that he ought not to have driven after consuming alcohol..."
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