Socialite daughter of The Hour Glass founders gets jail, fine for drug consumption, traffic offence

SINGAPORE — The socialite daughter of the founders of luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass was sentenced to 22 months' jail and a S$1,000 fine by the District Court on Thursday (Oct 11) for drug consumption and driving without due care.

Audrey Tay has also been disqualified from driving for 18 months. She is fined in default of a one-week imprisonment for the traffic offence.

In August, the 45-year-old pleaded guilty to four counts of consuming and possessing ketamine as well as for driving without due care.

Five other charges, which include consumption and possession of drugs such as methamphetamine and ketamine, were taken into consideration for sentencing.

She is appealing against the sentence and has been granted bail. Her bail amount, however, has been increased from S$50,000 to S$80,000.

Pleading for leniency on Thursday, defence lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam said that pyschiatric reports showed that Tay was suffering from depression due to her "oldest daughter's rejection" of her.

Her depression affected her judgement and led her to commit the offences, he added. Mr Thuraisingam said that the psychiatric reports also showed that Tay had used drugs as a form of self-medication.

Calling for Tay to be given 26 months' jail, alongside a fine and disqualification from driving, Deputy Public Prosecutor Terence Chua pointed out that Tay had re-offended while out on bail. She also had other ways to deal with her depression, but chose to take drugs instead.

In sentencing her, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan said that there is no causal link between Tay's mental illness and the offences committed. He added that her illness did not affect her ability to make choices.

She was a casual drug user, and it was not a one-off incident, he said, noting that she had re-offended.

Tay, who was solemn on hearing her sentence, was accompanied in court by her mother Jannie Chan, 72, who had started The Hour Glass in 1979 with her ex-husband Henry Tay, 73.

BACKGROUND TO THE CASE

The court was told that on the evening of Aug 28, 2015, while dining at a Thai restaurant in Orchard Towers, Tay snorted ketamine after she was offered the drug by a transsexual in the women's toilet.

The socialite later left Orchard Towers and drove to meet a friend, but ended up driving her car — a Toyota Vellfire — onto a kerb along Newton Road. It collided into a central divider and hit a traffic light.

She caused the lamp post near the traffic light to fall, blocking the opposite side of the road. The cost of repairing the traffic light and central divider amounted to more than S$3,000.

A police officer who interviewed Tay at the accident site noticed that she had slurred speech, and was informed by the paramedics that her pupils were dilated. When questioned, Tay admitted that she had earlier consumed ketamine and a glass of wine.

She was arrested at about 1.40am on Aug 28, 2015, and taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for a medical examination, where she also submitted urine and blood samples.

Tay's blood sample was found to have contained 0.50 micrograms of ketamine per millilitre of blood. Her urine also contained the drug.

For the offences committed on Aug 28, 2015, she was charged with five counts of consuming ketamine and methamphetamine as well as driving without due care, among others.

While she was out on S$30,000 bail, Tay committed another set of drug consumption and possession offences about two years later.

On Oct 10 last year, Tay showed up for a psychiatric appointment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in an intoxicated state, with her urine testing positive for ketamine and benzodiazepines.

She was arrested near IMH by Central Narcotics Bureau officers at about 5.30pm that day. The officers found that she had three packets of ketamine in her possession as well as drug-taking utensils in the form of three stained straws.

Her urine tests also showed traces of norketamine, which is the product of metabolised ketamine. Norketamine is a banned substance under the law.

During investigations, Tay admitted she had relapsed and started consuming drugs again two months before her arrest, and would take drugs twice a week.

She last consumed ketamine a day before the psychiatric appointment, taking the drug in the toilet of a petrol kiosk along Bukit Timah Road when her chauffeur stopped to refuel.

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