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Shaw scion jailed, fined for third drink-driving offence

SINGAPORE — Howard Shaw Chai Li, the grandson of the founder of Shaw Organisation, is going behind bars again — his third time in 11 years.

SINGAPORE — Howard Shaw Chai Li, the grandson of the founder of Shaw Organisation, is going behind bars again — his third time in 11 years.

The 46-year-old former green activist yesterday pleaded guilty to his third drink-driving offence in 20 years and was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail and a S$10,000 fine. He was also banned from taking the wheel for eight years.

With his history of drink-driving offences, he could have been imposed enhanced penalties of imprisonment up to three years, and a fine not exceeding S$30,000.

Shaw, who was accompanied by his sister for his hearing in the State Courts yesterday, appeared forlorn during the proceedings.

He was arrested for his latest drink-driving offence on Jan 31, when police officers at a roadblock along Whitley Road noticed that he “smelt heavily of alcohol”.

Investigations showed that Shaw had drunk three glasses of white wine before going behind the wheel. He said he stopped drinking at around 2am, and was stopped at 3.45am.

He failed his breathalyser test at the roadblock and was taken to the Traffic Police Headquarters for a Breath Evidential Analyser test. He was found to have 88 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, more than double the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.

Shaw is the son of Mr Shaw Vee King, eldest son of Shaw Organisation founder Runme Shaw. On LinkedIn, he is listed as the senior vice-president of corporate social responsibility at Halcyon Group, a Singapore-based industrial holding company. Prior to that, he was the executive director of the Singapore Environment Council.

This is Shaw’s fourth brush with the law. 

His previous convictions for drink-driving were in 1997 and 2006. In 1997, he was fined S$3,000 and disqualified from driving for two years. For his repeat offence, he was jailed for a week, fined S$8,000 and barred from driving for four years.

In 2012, he was among the 51 men rounded up for paying for sex with an underage social escort who was part of an online vice ring. He was jailed three months for this offence.

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