Head of Grab’s fintech arm jailed 12 days, fined for drink driving, crashing into traffic light
Wong Wenbin had almost double the prescribed limit of alcohol in his system during the accident. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
Nadine Chua
UPDATED
OCT 24, 2024, 07:06 PM
SINGAPORE – The head and managing director of Grab’s fintech arm, GrabFin, was sentenced to 12 days’ jail on Oct 24 for drink driving and crashing into a traffic light.
Wong Wenbin, 42, who had almost double the prescribed limit of alcohol in his system during the accident, was also fined $5,000 and disqualified from driving for 36 months.
The court heard he had at least 63 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath, which exceeded the prescribed limit of 35 microgrammes.
On Aug 17, 2023, at around 9pm, Wong was at Party World KTV in Havelock Road with his colleagues where he drank two glasses of red wine.
He had his last drink at around midnight before driving home.
At around 12.50am, Wong turned right along Havelock Road towards the Central Expressway junction of Outram Road and crashed his car into a traffic light.
Photos of the accident produced in court showed a badly damaged red BMW with its airbags deployed. The traffic light it crashed into was tilted to the side.
The court heard that damage to the traffic light was around $2,100, and Wong spent around $15,000 to $20,000 to repair his car.
Seeking a jail term of two to four weeks, the prosecution said Wong was a serious offender as he drove drunk and caused an accident barely 50 minutes after his last drink.
He had previous records of speeding and failing to stop at a red light.
The police prosecutor said a strong deterrence was needed in such offences given the rise in drink driving cases in Singapore.
There were three fatal drink driving accidents in the first half of 2022, which rose to eight in 2023 and nine in 2024 during the same period.
In mitigation, Wong’s lawyer Danny Quah sought that his client do 120 hours of community service in lieu of a jail term.
He said: “Instead of being sent to jail, he can be an ambassador for road safety so he can influence others and make an impact in society. When someone does something wrong, he is in a position to help other people to not make the same mistake as him.”
District Judge Shawn Ho then asked: “What is stopping your client from volunteering to be an ambassador of road safety, without a court order?”
In response, Mr Quah said it would send a deterrent signal for the community service to be mandatory, but acknowledged it was a slightly unusual request.
Mr Quah also noted the traffic light was fixed the next morning and did not severely inconvenience road users.
But Judge Ho said this was testament to the efficiency of the Land Transport Authority and did not view it as a mitigating factor.
The offence of drink driving carries a fine of between $2,000 and $10,000 or jail time of up to 12 months, or both.
Repeat offenders can be fined between $5,000 and $20,000 and jailed for up to two years.
