Ong Hwee Leong v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Yong Pung How CJ
• Judgment Date: 02 March 1992
• Neutral Citation: [1992] SGHC 49
• Docket Number: Magistrate's Appeal No 402 of 1991
• Date: 02 March 1992
• Published date: 19 September 2003
• Year: 1992
• Plaintiff Counsel: Henry Hoe (Henry Hoe & Co)
• Citation: [1992] SGHC 49
• Defendant Counsel: Jennifer Marie (Deputy Public Prosecutor)
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Subject Matter: Road rage,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Voluntarily causing hurt,One week's imprisonment,Sentencing,Custodial sentence required if motorists resort to violence over trivial traffic matters,s 323 Penal Code (Cap 224),Forms of punishment

This was an appeal against sentence only. The appellant pleaded guilty on 4 December 1991 before a district court to an offence of voluntarily causing hurt punishable under s 323 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) (`the Code`), as a result of which he was sentenced to one week`s imprisonment.

On 26 September 1991 at about 8.50pm, both the appellant aged 26 years and the victim aged 51 years were driving their respective vans along Upper Thomson Road. While driving behind the victim`s van, the appellant switched on the headlights of his van to high beam. This irritated the victim who then allowed the appellant to overtake him, and in turn switched on his headlights to highbeam to irritate the appellant. Subsequently, when both parties stopped at the traffic lights, the appellant alighted from his van and confronted the victim. During the ensuing dispute, he fisted the victim on the right cheek. The victim suffered a swelling over the right malar area and was given medical leave for one day.

The appellant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

That you, on or about 26 September 1991 at about 8.50pm, along Yishun Ring Road near to the pedestrian crossing of Block 103 Yishun Ring Road, Singapore, did voluntarily cause hurt to one Latiff s/o Abdul Kader, to wit, by fisting his face, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under s 323 of the Penal Code (Cap 224).

Although the appellant declined to say anything in mitigation, the district judge took into account the fact that he was a first offender. He could not ignore the fact, however, that the appellant had assaulted a man twice as old as himself on the face and had simply driven off after that, and he was of the view that the appellant`s action was one of hooliganism on the road. He noted that motorists had increasingly resorted to violence at the slightest irritation or provocation and there had recently been a spate of such cases. In his view such deliberate violence on the road must be deterred.

Counsel for the appellant submitted that this incident had arisen from a minor misunderstanding on the road and even the prosecution had not asked the court below to pass a deterrent sentence. In the circumstances, he submitted that the district court should have merely imposed a fine, and the custodial sentence of one week`s imprisonment was manifestly excessive. In support of this argument, he cited two cases under s 323 of the Code, PP v Khoo Kim Chwee 1 in which the...