A 36-year-old man pleaded guilty to one count of careless driving and one count of obstructing justice on Tuesday, March 25. This comes after Yuen Zheng Wen drove into a traffic light pole, losing control of his vehicle, and then agreed to swap seats with his passenger so that she would take the blame instead.
In September 2024, his passenger, 31-year-old Chin Wei Yeeng, was charged with both obstructing justice and providing false information to the authorities. The next hearing in her case, which is being handled separately, is scheduled on April 17.
During a dinner with his coworkers on February 16, 2024, Yuen drank three to four glasses of red wine between 6 pm and 10.30 pm.
Yuen Accepted and Agreed to Switch Seats
Chin accepted his offer to drive her home in his car after supper. Around 10.35 pm, nevertheless, he lost control of his car while trying to make a turn from Moulmein Road into the Central Expressway. As a result, the vehicle mounted the curb and struck a traffic signal pole.
According to court documents, the cost of repairing the damage to the traffic signal pole was S$991.57 (US$741).
Following the crash, Yuen accepted and agreed to switch seats with Chin, who proposed that she shoulder the responsibility.
Chin stated that she was the driver of the car and that she had had one glass of wine before operating the vehicle when traffic police officers came on the scene and began questioning them. Yuen provided the cops with the identical set of facts.
As a result, Chin was the only one given a breathalyzer test, which she failed. According to court documents, the traffic police officers assumed Yuen was not the driver, thus they did not give him a test.
Yuen was free to depart and was not taken into custody for interrogation, but Chin was later arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Verdict Postponed Until April 17
On February 17, 2024, a day after the incident, Yuen, feeling guilty about the lie, attempted to turn himself in and eventually admitted to the police that he was the car's driver.
Ryan Lim, the deputy public prosecutor, said that the conspiracy to obstruct justice had serious consequences and requested a sentence of five to eight weeks in prison as well as a 24-month driving ban.
"With the accused's colleague claiming that she was the one driving the car, the police consequently neglected to conduct breath analysis on the accused," said Lim in his submission, as quoted by CNA.
He added, "This rendered it impossible to prove in a court of law that he was driving while above the legal limit. Given that the accused had downed 3 or 4 glasses of wine prior to driving, this was a real possibility."
Defense attorney Devlin Mohyong said that although Yuen was an offender in this case, he did not take the initiative to switch seats in order to get a reduced sentence for his client.
In response to this argument, Lim said: "While we accept that offence was not done out of financial incentive, the accused ... is the one who stood to benefit. While he did not initiate it, he stood by to allow it to play out."
The sentence hearing for Yuen has been postponed until April 17.
