Singapore—Due to drink driving, a fine of S$2,000 was meted out to an executive of Standard Chartered Bank. Forty-eight-year-old Cristian Alexander Jonsson entered a guilty plea to a drink-driving charge on Thursday, September 12.
Mr Jonsson who originally hails from Sweden but is a permanent resident of Singapore, was apprehended while driving on Dempsey Road a little past midnight on September 5.
The global head at Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) was found to have 54 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
In Singapore, the legal limit is 35mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
Aside from the fine, as part of his penalty for the offence, Mr Jonsson has been prohibited from driving for the next 18 months.
On the evening of September 4, Mr Jonsson went to a restaurant on Dempsey Road, Candlenut, before 8:30 pm, wherein he drank seven glasses of wine.
By midnight, he stopped drinking and headed home.
At another carpark, he was stopped for checks and was arrested shortly afterward when he failed a breathalyzer test.
Mr Jonsson, who opted not to secure the services of a lawyer to represent him, admitted to Lorraine Ho, the District Judge, that he was aware he had done “something wrong.”
He also apologised for taking the wheel despite having consumed a large quantity of alcohol.
The Straits Times (ST) reports that Mr Jonsson is the head of StanChart’s capital structuring distribution group and loan syndications, according to his LinkedIn page.
The bank told ST, “We will review the matter in line with our internal policies and procedures. It is inappropriate for us to comment further.”
People convicted of drink driving for the first time in Singapore may receive a jail sentence of up to six months or a S$5,000 fine. People to repeat this offence may receive a jail sentence of up to one year, as well as a S$10,000 fine.
Mr Jonsson’s conviction for drink driving comes just a few weeks after a high-profile case of repeated drink driving, this time involving the sister-in-law of Hollywood star George Clooney, who just recently faced a new drink-driving charge, six years after she was convicted of the same offence.
On August 18, TISG reported, “Tala Alamuddin Le Tallec, aged 47 and a Singapore permanent resident, was allegedly driving a BMW X5 while drunk in the early hours of May 14.
The older sister of human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of actor George Clooney, is facing four individual charges—for drink driving, for driving a car without a Singapore Class 3 driving licence, for driving without insurance, and for using the car without the owner’s consent.
On May 14, in the early hours of the morning, Le Tallec was allegedly driving while drunk along Holland Road in the direction of Ulu Pandan.
Not only was Le Tallec in an inebriated state, she apparently also did not have a driving licence and she had taken the car without the consent of the owner of the vehicle.
The identity of the owner of the BMW X5 that Le Tallec was driving was not revealed.
Court documents showed that when the authorities caught Le Tallec at around 2.30am and tested her for alcohol, she reportedly had 95 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of her breath, which exceeded the allowable limit of 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
Le Tallec was previously convicted of a drink-driving charged in Singapore on April 15, 2013.
If convicted of the repeat offence of drink-driving, Le Tallec could be jailed for up to 12 months and given a fine between S$3,000 and S$10,000.
She could also be prohibited from driving with a longer driving ban, or disallowed from holding or obtaining a driving licence for at least one year, unless waived by the courts for a special reason.” -/TISG
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George Clooney’s sister-in-law charged with second drink-driving offence in Singapore