State Courts apologise to man jailed two extra days due to officer's error

The State Courts have apologised to a lorry driver after he spent an extra two days in jail because his payment for a fine was not recorded.

Mr Teo Seng Tiong, 59, was sentenced on Jan 14 to seven weeks' jail and a fine of $500 for swerving his lorry into a cyclist and failing to make a police report within 24 hours of the accident.

The State Courts said yesterday that Mr Teo's appeal was dismissed by the High Court in July, and he paid the fine and began serving his jail term on July 20.

While the High Court had notified the State Courts that the fine had been paid, the State Courts officer in charge failed to update the Warrant of Commitment and the case management system accordingly.

When the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) checked with the State Courts on Aug 21 and Aug 22, it was informed that the fine had not been paid owing to the earlier error.

As a result, Mr Teo ended up staying longer in jail. During sentencing, he was told that he would have to serve another three days behind bars if he was unable to pay the fine.

The error was discovered when Mr Teo's lawyer, Mr Tan Hee Joek, sent a receipt of the payment for the fine to SPS. Mr Teo was released on the morning of Aug 24.

"The State Courts deeply regret what has happened, and we have conveyed our letter of apology to Mr Teo through the Attorney-General's Chambers," the State Courts said in its statement.

It has since implemented further safeguards, such as additional levels of checks. It has also commenced an internal review of the matter, which could lead to "appropriate action" including disciplinary action being taken, it said.

Mr Tan said his client is grateful to the courts for quickly clarifying the error. "He trusts that the authorities will soon commence dialogue with us on how Mr Teo can be appropriately compensated in order to draw a timely closure to this unfortunate episode," the lawyer added.

Lawyers The Straits Times spoke to noted the rarity of such errors.

Notably, in 2007, a man convicted of abetting a loan shark to harass a debtor was caned three times more than he was sentenced to after a court clerk recorded the sentence wrongly. A compensation was made after the man reached a settlement with the Government.

Criminal lawyer Sunil Sudheesan said such errors are "very rare". "(Mr Teo) could have told prisons he paid the fine, and it was unfortunate that further checks were not carried out," he said.

Veteran lawyer Amolat Singh agreed that these are "very exceptional instances". "The fact is that he lost his liberties for two days... I'm sure the defence counsel will work out some compensation. It's hard to quantify because it is a private matter between Mr Teo and AGC."

Lawyer Josephus Tan said: "As the saying goes, 'one day in jail is one day too many'. Previous cases had settled with undisclosed sums of compensation and I believe the present case would be no different."

The courts' apology should not be read negatively, noted lawyer Shashi Nathan. "It shows that the court is transparent and independent in how it looks at cases and takes these errors seriously."

Mr Teo was convicted of causing hurt to cyclist Eric Cheung Hoyu in December 2018. This was after Mr Cheung hit the left side mirror of Mr Teo's lorry, breaking it. Mr Cheung was fined $2,800 on April 12 last year for mischief and causing obstruction.

The incident was caught on video that was shared widely on social media. Aside from the jail term, Mr Teo was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for two years.