Man jailed for harbouring overstayer and driving under a ban, fined for traffic offences

A transport coordinator who committed a series of traffic offences was sentenced to jail, fined and banned from driving for eight years. PHOTO: ST GRAPHICS

SINGAPORE - A transport coordinator who committed a series of traffic offences since 2007 was sentenced to jail, fined and banned from driving for eight years on Thursday (Dec 31).

Jason Lim Tak Wei, 37, admitted to six of nine charges - driving without a valid licence, speeding, failing to surrender his licence upon disqualification, driving under disqualification, failing to conform to a red light signal, and harbouring a Chinese national.

He was given the minimum six months' jail for harbouring his 23-year-old girlfriend, Ms Luo Jinpeng, with reckless disregard as to whether she had remained unlawfully in Singapore. She had stayed at his Petir Road home from Feb 25 to May 9 this year before she moved out to stay at various hotels.

The couple were arrested at a hotel in Geylang on May 16. Ms Luo has been fined $4,000 for overstaying.

Lim, the court heard, was banned from driving for four years by a traffic court in August 2011 for driving without insurance.

But he failed to hand over his driving licence to the Traffic Police within seven days as required.

The court heard that he drove a lorry along Tampines Avenue 1 without a valid licence on July 15, 2007. He was also caught speeding along the road.

He was sentenced to a concurrent term of eight weeks' jail and given the eight-year ban for driving along Lorong 39 Geylang on Feb 3, 2013 while under a four-year ban.

He was also fined $2,600 for four other traffic offences.

Lim, who is now in a drug rehabilitation centre, had convictions in 1997 and 1998 for driving offences.

His sentence was backdated to July 27 when he was first produced in court.

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