Repeat drink driver gets over 4 months’ jail after reoffending a year following last conviction
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For the drink-driving offence, Clement Tiang Chan Lih was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for 6½ years from the date of his release.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
- Clement Tiang Chan Lih was sentenced to over 4 months’ jail, fined $19,000, and banned from driving for 6½ years on July 15.
- Tiang had re-offended in July 2023, a year after a 2022 conviction.
- His latest offences involved a taxi driver, who suffered a neck injury following an accident.
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SINGAPORE – A drink driver who was fined $2,500 and disqualified from driving for two years in July 2022 was caught committing a similar offence a year later.
Despite the driving ban, Clement Tiang Chan Lih drove a car after consuming alcohol in July 2023 and got into an accident with a taxi.
The 62-year-old cabby suffered whiplash, a form of neck injury, and a bruised right elbow.
On July 15, 2026, Tiang, who had also been caught speeding multiple times previously, was sentenced to four months and eight weeks’ jail, and fined $19,000.
The 52-year-old pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including drink driving and causing hurt to the cabby by driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.
For the drink-driving offence, he was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for 6½ years from the date of his release.
Without revealing further details, Deputy Public Prosecutor Intan Suhaily Abu Bakar told the court that Tiang was earlier convicted of drink driving on July 15, 2022.
He was fined and disqualified from driving for two years.
The end date of that disqualification was July 14, 2024, the court heard.
Despite this, Tiang consumed alcohol and drove a car with the headlights off along Keppel Road shortly after midnight on July 29, 2023.
His car later struck a crash barrier and protruded into the path of the taxi.
The taxi hit Tiang’s car soon after and a witness alerted the police.
A Traffic Police officer who arrived at the scene noticed that Tiang’s breath reeked of alcohol. The offender was arrested after he failed a breathalyser test and was taken to the Traffic Police Division in Ubi Avenue 3.
He underwent another test and was found to have 63 micrograms of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of breath. The prescribed limit is 35 mcg of alcohol in the same amount of breath.
The DPP said that Tiang has since made restitution of $13,300 to transport company ComfortDelGro for the damage to the taxi.
She added that the crash barrier was also damaged, and it cost the Land Transport Authority more than $26,000 to repair.
Tiang has started making instalment payments towards the repair costs.
On July 15, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence Tiang to up to 10 months’ jail and a fine of up to $23,000.
Referring to him as a “serious repeat offender”, she said that he was aware of his earlier disqualification but had continued to drive.
Tiang was represented by lawyers Anil Singh Sandhu and Nurhan Sufi from Kertar & Sandhu.
They asked the court to sentence their client to up to four months and eight weeks in jail and a fine of $19,000.
The lawyers stated in court documents that Tiang had not reoffended since the accident on July 29, 2023. They also said that he had made full restitution to the cabby for his medical and personal expenses.