SINGAPORE — A man who drove his BMW against the flow of traffic along the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) last year was sentenced to four weeks’ jail on Thursday (March 8), after the District Judge dismissed the defendant’s plea for a mandatory treatment order.

Brandon Ng Hai Chong, who admitted to one count of reckless driving previously, was also disqualified from holding any class of driving licences for a five-year period.

The 31-year-old indicated his intentions on Thursday to appeal against the sentence.

On Jan 4 last year, Ng had been drinking with his friend and two other people at Arena Country Club. They were there for nearly seven hours, singing songs and drinking, and Ng “spent majority of his time playing games with the bar hostesses”, said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gabriel Choong. During that time, he consumed about three or four glasses of beer.

As he was leaving, Ng rejected an offer to call a valet, and drove off at around 1am to head home.

Close to 1.30am, he was travelling along Clementi Avenue 6 when he missed a turn into the AYE to head towards the city. Instead, he entered the Pandan Flyover and went on a slip road leading into AYE, in the direction of Tuas. Shortly after, while on the three-lane expressway, he made a U-turn and drove against traffic on the rightmost lane.

For a period of two minutes, at least three vehicles had to switch lanes to avoid a collision.

Then, he stopped his vehicle at the rightmost lane, turned his car’s hazard lights on, and flashed the high-beam lights at oncoming traffic, all while facing the wrong direction.

“At least four vehicles had to take evasive action to avoid him,” DPP Choong said.

In total, he drove about 2km against the flow of traffic, travelling at an average of 50km/h.

He later made another U-turn to align his car with the traffic flow and drove home.

AT LEAST THREE CALLS MADE TO POLICE

Ng’s case was among seven similar incidents of motorists driving against the flow of traffic in less than a three-week period between December 2016 and January 2017.

At an earlier hearing in November last year, the court was told that the police received at least three calls from other drivers regarding Ng’s reckless driving.

DPP Choong urged the court then to sentence Ng to at least six weeks’ jail and five years’ disqualification from driving, noting that he “made a conscious decision to drink and drive”.

“A sufficiently deterrent sentence is thus required to address public unease. The wrong signal would be sent should the accused be let off with a light sentence,” he added.

Ng’s lawyer Luke Lee asked the court to impose a mandatory treatment order instead, pointing out that his client has been diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, and he has a history of depression as well.

Ng was previously jailed two years in 2007 for aggravated outrage of modesty. He was also placed on probation in 2011 for housebreaking, after stealing items worth close to S$24,000.

On the housebreaking conviction, DPP Choong said then that Ng “had not cherished (the opportunity at rehabilitation in view of his psychiatric condition)”.

District Judge Terence Tay noted that Mr Lee had “grossly understated” his client’s culpability and harm caused.

Pending his appeal, Ng was on Thursday granted a stay on sentence and offered bail of S$15,000.