{"id":68719,"date":"2026-07-15T00:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68719"},"modified":"2026-07-15T00:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:39:01","slug":"jail-for-man-who-drank-about-a-litre-of-beer-drove-car-that-fell-into-suntec-fountain-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68719","title":{"rendered":"Jail for man who drank about a litre of beer, drove car that fell into Suntec fountain in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->A man drove his car after consuming about a litre of beer and the vehicle ploughed through a barricade of Suntec City\u2019s Fountain of Wealth before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/one-person-taken-to-hospital-in-accident-at-suntec-city-s-fountain-of-wealth?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">plunging into it on July 13, 2024<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Then Shing Chong later told the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) that he had taken either an antihistamine or a sleeping pill before he consumed the alcohol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The alcohol content in his blood and breath was not taken after the accident, and he was rushed to the emergency department of Tan Tock Seng Hospital after suffering injuries, including a lacerated scalp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Then, 58, who caused nearly $64,600 in damage and has made full restitution, was sentenced to five weeks\u2019 jail on July 14 after pleading guilty to driving in a dangerous manner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of\u00a0driving\u00a0licences for 2\u00bd years from his release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Deputy Public Prosecutor Gladys Lim told the court that at around 5pm on July 12, 2024, Then left his home and drove to Suntec City to meet a friend for a drinking session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He arrived at the shopping mall at around 6pm, parked in the basement and went to a bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He consumed about a litre of beer between 6.15pm and midnight before driving off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">While exiting the carpark, the vehicle was stationary for about 10 seconds after a gantry barrier lifted for it to pass through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Then drove out of the carpark and was travelling along Temasek Boulevard when he lost focus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He continued driving straight even though directional signs indicated he had to turn left into a roundabout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He then drove straight through three lanes, ploughed through the barricade of the Fountain of Wealth and crashed into the basement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The DPP said that at the time of the accident, three construction workers were working at the basement of the fountain. They ran away unhurt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A lorry crane was used to lift the car from the fountain before it was towed away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The DPP urged District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan to sentence Then to a jail term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On the workers escaping injury, she said: \u201cHad they been working or resting at the exact area where the accused\u2019s car plummeted and crashed, the outcome in terms of harm caused would have been far more devastating and catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Then was represented by Josephus Tan, Cory Wong and Devlin Mohyong, who asked the court to call for a report to assess their client\u2019s suitability for a mandatory treatment order (MTO).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The lawyers from<!-- --> Invictus Law Corporation<!-- --> added that, according to an IMH report, Then had major depressive disorder when the accident took place. They argued that there was a contributory link between his psychiatric condition and the offence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Offenders sentenced to an MTO have to undergo treatment to address their mental conditions in lieu of time behind bars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The DPP, however, objected to the report being called and said there was a need for deterrence in this case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On July 14, the judge agreed, stressing that drink driving was a highly irresponsible behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He said Then\u2019s offence had caused significant property damage and he could have injured or killed people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-man-who-drank-about-a-litre-of-beer-drove-car-which-fell-into-suntec-fountain-in-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A man drove his car after consuming about a litre of beer and the vehicle ploughed through a barricade of Suntec City\u2019s Fountain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}