Former Mediacorp artiste Shane Pow jailed for 5 weeks for drink driving

Shane Pow Xun Ping was also fined $6,000 and disqualified from driving for five years on July 14, 2021. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

SINGAPORE - Former Mediacorp artiste Shane Pow Xun Ping, 30, was sentenced to five weeks' jail on Wednesday (July 14) after he pleaded guilty to a drink-driving charge.

He was also fined $6,000 and disqualified from driving for five years from his date of release.

This was his second conviction for the offence.

In 2014, he was fined $2,300 and disqualified from driving for a year, after he was convicted of offences including drink driving.

Repeat drink drivers can be jailed for up two years and fined up to $20,000.

First-time offenders, however, can be jailed for up to a year and fined up to $10,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Yong Ngee said that Pow had met two friends at an Amoy Street Korean restaurant on Sept 17 last year.

He then consumed about two glasses of beer between 7pm and 8.30pm.

Pow left the eatery about two hours later and drove his friends home in a van, before driving to the Bugis area to pick up another friend.

He was on his way home and was driving along Java Road towards Nicoll Highway at around 11.20pm when a Traffic Police officer stopped him for a routine check.

Pow, who was found to be reeking of alcohol, was then escorted to the Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi Avenue 3 after he failed a breathalyser test.

He was later found to have 49 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The prescribed limit is 35mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

On Wednesday, defence lawyer S.S. Dhillon pleaded for Pow to be given four weeks' jail and a fine of $5,000. He also asked for his client to be disqualified from driving for five years.

The lawyer from Dhillon & Panoo added: "The accused sincerely regrets what he had done and seeks an opportunity to make amends."

Besides this case, Pow had also been in the spotlight in recent months, as he was one of the 12 guests in an unlawful gathering at veteran actor Terence Cao Guohui's home amid the Covid-19 outbreak last October.

The event which Shane Pow (front row, black t-shirt) attended received flak on social media after pictures of the unmasked group went viral online. PHOTO: JEFFREY XU/INSTAGRAM

Cao, 53, had hosted the event at his condominium unit in Daisy Road, off Braddell Road, to celebrate his birthday, as well as that of Pow and another artiste, Jeffrey Xu Mingjie, 32.

Cao was fined $3,500 on May 25 after he pleaded guilty to an offence under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act.

One of the guests, former magazine editor Lance Lim Chee Keong, 50, who had invited four people to the gathering, was fined $3,000 on May 18 for an offence under the same Act.

Pow and the 10 other guests had earlier been fined $300 in lieu of being prosecuted due to their lower level of culpability.

Six of them were artistes Julie Tan Shaoyin, 29; Sonia Nicola Chew, 30; Dawn Yeoh Yishan, 34; Jeremy Chan Ming Yuew, 39; Heng Tee Kok, 45; and Xu.

The four other guests were managers Tan Jun Chuan, 30, Debbie Lu Shuyi, 33, and Eleanor Wang Chunwei, 34, as well as part-time model Valnice Yek Jia Hui, 22.

The event received flak on social media after pictures of the unmasked group went viral online.

The celebrities have since apologised via Mediacorp, saying they "deeply regret" their actions.

Mediacorp terminated Pow's contract following these incidents.

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