10m drive, one-year ban

10m drive, one-year ban

Man fined, banned for letting friend drive his car with no insurance cover

By Hedy Khoo
February 22, 2009

THE car moved at a walking pace for no more than two car lengths. That short trip cost a man $500 and a one-year disqualification from driving.

Car owner Leo Chin Hao, 38, had let his friend try her hand at driving his car at the National Stadium carpark.

It moved at a 'slower than walking' pace for 10m before he and friend Christina Pan were booked by two traffic cops for allowing her to use his car without insurance cover.

Ms Pan was also booked for driving without a licence.

Both were fined $500 and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 12 months for all classes of vehicles.

The incident took place on 8 Apr last year at about 10.45pm at Carpark F at Stadium Walk, next to the Indoor Stadium at Kallang.

According to Mr Chin Hao, Ms Pan was planning to take driving lessons and he had merely wanted to let her 'have a feel of driving a manual car'.

He drove to a 'deserted and empty' part of the carpark and showed her how to drive it.

She then got behind the wheel and drove it, while he sat next to her in the front passenger seat.

He claimed that the car was 'moving at an extremely slow speed, even slower than walking, on first gear'.

Found out
Two traffic policemen who were at the scene noticed the jerking movement of the car and approached the pair.

It was then that they discovered that Ms Pan did not have a licence.

In mitigation, defence counsel Rajan Nair said that throughout the time that she was driving, Mr Chin Hao had one hand on the handbrake and the other on the steering wheel of the car to ensure he could stop and control the car when necessary.

He also claimed that he did not plan to let Ms Pan drive out of the carpark or to teach her how to drive.

Mr Nair added that the carpark was not in a housing estate and was deserted at the time of the offence.

But one of the two traffic police officers, Corporal Cheng Chee Mun, said the carpark was not empty during that time.

District Court Judge Salina Ishak, in passing judgment, said that the disqualification was a warning to potential offenders about the seriousness of driving without insurance coverage.

She felt that there would have been a possibility that Ms Pan have met other road users and become a danger to them.

Judge Ishak added that Mr Chin Hao was not a driving instructor and while he said that he didn't plan on teaching Ms Pan, he had, in fact, given her driving instructions.

Mr Chin Hao has appealed against the decision.

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,193597,00.html?