38-year-old Monica Cheng Mei Ling, who drove her husband’s car without having a valid driving license, was sentenced to 2 months and 2 weeks of imprisonment on 13 April, as well as being fined $2,200 and banned from driving for 2 years.
She had previously pleaded guilty in court last month to one count of driving without a license, using a vehicle without insurance coverage, driving carelessly as well as stealing from Watsons.
She had three other charges taken into consideration during her sentencing, including taking her husband’s car without his consent, failure to report for bail, and using a soap bottle at a shop without paying.
What happened?
On 8 February 2020, She had driven her husband’s rental car without him knowing while he was still fast asleep, taking her daughter with her and seating the child in the passenger seat at the front of the car.
She was driving along Sims Way when a traffic police officer noticed that the car was swerving left and right a few times across 2 lanes.
He also noticed that Cheng’s erratic driving was causing the other vehicles behind her to brake suddenly or slow down their vehicles in order to avoid collisions and that she didn’t have proper control of the car.
He then rode beside Cheng’s car and noticed a child in the front passenger seat before signalling to Cheng to stop the vehicle because he was worried for the child.
Cheng nodded in acknowledgement but didn’t stop the car despite the traffic police officer signalling to her to stop the car several times.
She eventually stopped the car along Balestier Road because of the traffic, and the police officer then told her to wind down her window and pull over at the next bus stop.
She complied with the instructions but was evasive when the police officer asked her for her particulars, and she eventually admitted that she didn’t have a driving license.
Cheng was also speaking slurrily and her gait was observed to be unsteady, and it was later revealed that she had taken some painkillers and consumed a bottle of cough syrup before driving.
In a separate incident in December 2021, Cheng also stole some cosmetics and insulin injections with the help of an accomplice from a Watsons outlet at Northpoint City.
It was also noted that she had arrived at the courtroom for her hearing half an hour late.
Was driving to do deliveries because no money feed daughter
During her mitigation, Cheng’s lawyer who was acting for her pro bono, Daniel Atticus Xu, said that Cheng had been under a tremendous amount of stress for years.
She has three children, with one of them being diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth as well as having a hole in his heart.
Her husband was often in and out of prison and she started having seizures in 2019, on top of her financial struggles.
Xu added that her husband worked as a Grab deliveryman but refused to do the deliveries to support the family, who was in a dire financial situation with rental and debt payments due.
On the day of the incident, Cheng was desperate because she didn’t have enough money to feed her 7-year-old daughter and decided to do a delivery on her husband’s behalf for money.
On the stolen items from Watsons, Xu said that Cheng has also since paid pack for the items that she stole.