SINGAPORE - A 29-year-old man has been given jail and fined for illegal online betting and driving offences.
Peh Wei Zhang, a development officer, was sentenced on Thursday to six weeks' imprisonment and fined $19,000.
Peh had been charged with 22 counts of illegal betting from June to July last year, gambling sums ranging from $200 to about $3,350 on soccer matches such as the Fifa World Cup and the Malaysia Super League.
After making the acquaintance of bookmaker Terrence Voo about a year ago during a drinking session, Peh received a text message from him asking if he was interested in obtaining an online soccer betting account. Shortly afterwards, Voo opened an account for Peh on www.ibcbet.com.
Following a raid on his Choa Chu Kang premises last July, Voo was arrested. Investigations later identified Peh as one of his clients.
Peh pleaded guilty to seven out of the 22 charges, the rest were taken into consideration. He was fined $2,000 for each of the seven charges.
Peh was also accused of drink-driving and driving while disqualified on March 18 last year along Ang Mo Kio Ave 6. For that offence, he received a six-week jail term. He had been disqualified from driving for 12 months at the time due to an earlier drink-driving conviction in 2013.
In mitigation, Peh asked the judge for leniency as he was getting married later this year and hoped to be out in time to settle his wedding affairs and not burden his fiancee further.
