SINGAPORE : The Attorney-General's Chambers is appealing the
judgement on Monday in which Premier Taxis chief Timothy Chua
escaped a jail term for his road rage act.
The 37-year-old chairman of the taxi company was instead fined the
maximum of S$1,000 for attacking a motorist after a traffic
collision along Bukit Timah Road in May 2003.
Very few people have escaped the jail term since Chief Justice Yong
Pung How declared in 1992 that jail sentences should be handed out
to all road-rage offenders.
But in her judgement on Monday, Magistrate Ngoh Siew Yen said while
prison terms have been customary for such offences, sentencing
precedents were just guidelines.
She ruled that Chua's case was different, as his act was not
premeditated, he did not use a weapon and had also shown genuine
remorse over his actions. - CNA