MOTORISTS, take note.

If you hit someone and drive off, you are considered to have committed three offences under the law and may get an even longer jail term.

First, you would have failed to stop after the accident. Second, you would have failed to help the victim, and finally, you have removed your vehicle from the accident scene without the authority of a police officer.

The offences for failing to stop and removing your vehicle from the scene are also considered to be two separate offences rather than one, ruled the Court of Appeal in a landmark judgment yesterday.

On top of the three offences, the errant driver can also be slapped with a fourth offence of driving without reasonable consideration, or even dangerous driving, depending on what happened.

This matter went before the Court of Appeal in the case of Joseph Ferdinent Fernandez, who hit a motorcyclist along the Pan-Island Expressway on 21 May 2005, while driving his BMW.

Fernandez was jailed six weeks, fined $2,000 and banned from driving for 18 months on all four charges.

He appealed, but the Appeal Court agreed with the trial judge, noting that failing to stop and "removing" the car from the scene - even though it was not stationary in the first place - constituted two distinct offences.