An 82-year-old man was sentenced to two weeks’ jail, fined S$2,000 and banned from driving for two years on Wednesday, October 22.
This comes after Loh Chun Meng drove his girlfriend’s car without her permission and without a valid driving license and ended up crashing the vehicle after stepping on the wrong pedal.
He entered a guilty plea to three charges: driving without a valid license, driving without insurance, and driving without the necessary caution and attention.
When determining the appropriate sentence, a fourth charge—removing a car without the owner’s permission—was taken into account.
According to court records, Loh’s driver’s license had expired on November 3, 1995.
He was staying at his girlfriend’s house on Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 in October 2023 when he woke up the following morning with knee pain.
He took her car keys and drove to a clinic on Towner Road to get an injection for his knee pain while the 57-year-old woman was still asleep.
Loh went to buy breakfast at Block 151 Bishan Street 11 after receiving his injection.
He pressed the accelerator rather than the brake pedal at the open-air parking lot close to the block.
As a result, the vehicle sped forward, mounted a curb, and collided with a metal cabinet that held gas cylinders from a nearby business.
After that, Loh hit a lamp post, mounted another curb, and reversed the vehicle back onto the road.
His actions caused the left rear portion of the car to be dented and scratched, and the rear windscreen to be crumpled and cracked.
The lamp post was unharmed, but the metal cabinet’s door was also dented.
For Loh, the prosecution requested a S$2,000 fine, two to four weeks in jail, and a 24-month ban from driving.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Intan Suhaily Abu Bakar said, as quoted by The Straits Times, “The accused was aware that his previous driving license had expired and that he was driving without a license. Furthermore, the accused had no reasonable explanation for driving without a license.”
She added that Loh could have woken up his girlfriend and asked her to drive if he had wanted to see a doctor about his knee pain.
Loh might have faced up to three years in prison, a S$10,000 fine, or both for operating a vehicle without a license.
He could have been fined up to S$1,000, imprisoned for up to three months, or both for driving without an active insurance policy.
He could have been fined up to S$1,000, imprisoned for up to six months, or both for driving without the necessary care and attention.
Loh might have also faced a driving ban for a variety of lengths of time for these offenses.
