THE third time you are hauled up for drink driving, you are off the road for good. That's the message the judiciary is sending to drink drivers.
Under the sentencing benchmark set by the Subordinate Courts, drink drivers with three strikes will face a lifetime driving ban, apart from jail sentences and fines.
District Judge Terence Chua reiterated this tough measure when he dealt with a third-time drink-driving offender last month.
He packed the offender off to jail for three months, fined him $10,000, and banned him from holding any driving licence for life.
Such repeat offenders, he said, were "undeserving of the privilege of holding a driving licence".
The driver, Ng Yeow Kwang, 46, who runs a scaffolding business, was stopped by the police during a road block along Mountbatten Road just after midnight on 10Dec last year.He had just left a pub in Katong.
OVER THE LIMIT
When questioned, he admitted to having had drinks before getting into the car. He was arrested after a breathalyser test showed his breath contain 48mcg of alcohol for every 100ml, 13mcg above the legal limit.
Investigations later revealed that Ng had two previous convictions - one in 1994 and another in 1998.
District Judge Chua said there were no compelling reasons to depart from the sentencing tariff for third-time offenders because Ng chose to drink and drive again, even though he had been jailed previously.
"Despite these heavy sentences, he had still gone to commit the current offence, indicating to me that either he has still not learnt his lesson, or the years have dulled his sense of how serious these offences are," he said.
