Jail for man who drove car with purported girlfriend's husband clinging to front windscreen

SINGAPORE - A 27-year-old man who believed his wife was having an affair confronted a 34-year-old man outside a hotel.

That led to him clinging to the front windscreen of the older man's car as it drove off at speeds of up to 70kmh with the woman inside for at least seven kilometres for about half an hour.

A district court heard on Wednesday (Oct 2) that Desmond Koh Wee Boon, 34, drove off with the younger man banging on the roof of his vehicle.

The name of the younger man was redacted from court documents seen by The Straits Times.

Koh was sentenced to 11 weeks' jail and disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for two years after he pleaded guilty to performing a rash act that endangered a life.

The court heard that on April 28 last year, the younger man, suspecting that his wife was having an affair with Koh, managed to trace her whereabouts to a Fragrance Hotel branch in Upper Serangoon Road at around 1.45am.

After waiting for about an hour, he spotted his wife and Koh entering a car parked in Sireh Place nearby.

The man approached the vehicle and started banging on the windscreen as well as the driver's side window, asking the pair to alight.

Koh then drove off with the man clinging to the driver's door. The man shouted at him to stop the car but Koh continued driving for about 40m and then made a left turn into Kampong Sireh.

At this point, the man was flung onto the road and he suffered abrasions, including on his right palm and left elbow.

When Koh's car had to stop behind a stationary vehicle, the younger man climbed onto its bonnet and clung to the top of the windscreen with his body stretched over the glass panel.

Despite this, Koh continued driving until they reached a Singtel building in Upper Serangoon Road where the man's wife got out of the vehicle and told her husband to get off. The husband refused, said Deputy Public Prosecutor David Lee.

Koh then continued driving his car and the passenger of a private-hire car, who spotted the man clinging to the windscreen, alerted the police.

At around 3.40am, officers managed to locate Koh's car and stopped him in front of Block 323 Serangoon Avenue 3.

The DPP said: "The accused alighted from the vehicle and was interviewed by police officers. (The man's wife) went towards the accused and asked if he was all right.

"(Her husband) then got off the car and shouted why 'she did not care for him first' before being held back by the police officers."

At around 4am, the husband fainted due to hyperventilation and was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

On Wednesday, DPP Lee urged District Judge Christopher Goh to sentence Koh to at least three months' jail and disqualify him from driving all classes of vehicles for two years.

He added: "By driving with a person on the car's windscreen, the accused did not only endanger the life of the person clinging onto the vehicle, but also other road users since he drove with his vision of the road obscured."

Koh is now out on bail of $10,000 and was ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on Oct 14 to begin serving his sentence.

For performing a rash act that endangered a life, he could have been jailed for up to six months and fined up to $2,500.

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