11-year jail term upheld for drink driver in fatal 2023 Dunearn crash following appeals
Selina Lum
The Straits Times
Sept 7, 2026
The High Court on Sept 7 upheld the jail sentence of 11 years imposed on a drink driver who crashed into a pedestrian at such a high speed that the 64-year-old man’s body was instantly severed by the impact.
The driver’s two young children, who were in the back seat at the time, were also hurt in the April 2023 crash.
Justice Christopher Tan dismissed the appeals of both the prosecution and defence against the jail sentence that was handed down by a district judge on Feb 2.
The 46-year-old Australian, who is a Singapore permanent resident, had pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving and one charge of drink driving.
He is not named owing to a gag order covering the identities of his children and their relationship with him.
On Aug 11, both the defence and the prosecution appealed only against the 11-year term for the dangerous driving charge.
The defence argued for a lower sentence of six years and four months to eight years’ jail, while the prosecution urged the court to increase the jail term to 12 years and nine months.
The judge said there was some merit in both appeals. “However, I have dismissed the appeals because the collective result of allowing both of them is that the imprisonment term remains largely the same as that imposed by the (district judge),” he added.
The district judge had arrived at the 11-year jail term by pegging the starting jail term to 16 years and applying a 30 per cent discount.
Singapore’s Sentencing Advisory Panel sets out the different ranges of reduction in sentence that a court can grant based on the stage at which the offender pleads guilty. In general, the earlier the plea, the greater the reduction in sentence.
Tan said he would have pegged the starting term to 14 years instead, as some of the sentencing factors should be “tempered downwards”.
One of the reasons for the downward adjustment was the voluntary restitution of more than $56,000 that the offender had made to the family of the pedestrian. This information came to light only during the appeal hearing and was not before the district judge.
On the other hand, Tan agreed with the prosecution that the 30 per cent sentencing discount was too high, given the procedural history of this case.
He thus declined to disturb the sentence, noting that a 20 per cent discount on the starting point of 14 years resulted in a little over 11 years, which was what the district judge imposed.
This meant the offender’s sentence remained unchanged – 11 years’ jail, a fine of $12,000 and a 15-year driving ban.
The offender was allowed to start his sentence on Sept 14, after his lawyer, Shashi Nathan, said his client had minor wrist surgery scheduled on Sept 10.
On April 23, 2023, the man drove to a birthday party in Turf Club Road in the Bukit Timah area with his children at around 10am.
He drank several glasses of wine at the event and had his final drink at around 1.30pm.
Shortly before 2pm, he secured his children, then aged three and four, in booster seats in the rear of the car and drove off. He felt lethargic as he had stayed up the night before to look after his newborn baby and had taken an antihistamine that morning.
At around 2pm, the man drove the car along Dunearn Road towards Bukit Timah Road, which had a speed limit of 70kmh.
The vehicle was near Tan Kah Kee MRT station when the pedestrian, a 64-year-old retiree, was standing by the roadside ahead, less than 100m away from an overhead bridge.
The pedestrian had crossed more than two lanes of Dunearn Road when the car barrelled into him.
It was only after the crash that the driver realised that he had hit a person. He jammed his brakes, and the car veered into the centre lane of Dunearn Road.
By then, the children were crying loudly from the impact of the crash, which shattered both the front and rear windscreens of the car.
The offender then alerted the police, and officers who arrived at the scene arrested him after he failed a preliminary breath test.
The authorities later obtained a blood sample from him, which showed that he had 145mg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
The man’s three-year-old child suffered an abrasion on the scalp, while the older one complained of abdominal pain.
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