CJ Chan also noted that defendants do plead guilty ‘especially for minor offences of which they may not be guilty for a variety of reasons’.
He said that if Chong’s story raised ‘a question of reasonable doubt, then he ought to be entitled to that doubt’.
Fucking VK Rajah didn't give me the doubt I was entitled!
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CJ lifts jail term on drink driver
K. C. Vijayan, Straits Times
1 April 2009
Almost all drink drivers are jailed when caught a second time.
But the Chief Justice has lifted the jail term on one such offender, Chong Pit Khai, and fined him $5,000 instead, because he felt the circumstances for the 28-year-old’s first offence in 2002 were rather different.
CJ Chan Sek Keong said in a written judgment on Monday that the law does not say jail is mandatory for repeat offenders like Chong, whose previous case had no precedent.
‘In my view, using an imprisonment term for each and every case as a starting point is not necessarily desirable as a sentencing precedent. The present case shows why it is not desirable,’ he said.
Chong’s case was different because in his first offence, he was found drunk and asleep in a parked car by police.
Then, he was charged with being in possession of a car while under the influence of alcohol, while in the current case he was actually driving while drunk.
CJ Chan also noted that defendants do plead guilty ‘especially for minor offences of which they may not be guilty for a variety of reasons’.
‘This is a reality which the court should not close its eyes to or shy away from,’ he said.
For this reason, a defendant is allowed to explain to the sentencing court why he pleaded guilty to a previous charge.
Chong, through his lawyer Krishnan Nadarajan, had explained that he was a national serviceman then and pleaded guilty as he felt the offence was a minor one and he wanted to save himself the hassle of going from his camp to court.
He said he had bought some alcoholic drinks from a nearby store and later drank in his father’s car, parked near the family home. He had not driven the car but had merely slept in it with the engine turned off.
CJ Chan said the courts are prepared to review an earlier offence to help decide the degree of guilt for that offence.
He said that if Chong’s story raised ‘a question of reasonable doubt, then he ought to be entitled to that doubt’.
Chong’s explanation showed his previous conviction was a weak antecedent to justify a jail term for the present case, said the judge.
Added to this, the high level of alcohol is in itself not enough to send a drink driver to jail in lieu of a fine, unless it is so high as to create a reasonable risk of the offender causing injury to people or damage to property on the road.
‘It should be the risk of inflicting social costs on the public that should be the aggravating factor,’ CJ Chan said.
This was not the case with Chong as the alcohol content found in him was moderate and did not impair his ability to drive, said CJ Chan, who made clear that each case must depend on its own facts.
In addition to the fine, Chong was also disqualified from driving for two years.
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