Monday, February 27th, a court ordered the forfeiture of a Maserati used by a man who injured a police officer by dragging him along with his car.
This happened when Lee Cheng Yan requested the court for the vehicle's return. His sister likewise requested the district court to do so, asserting that Lee had promised the vehicle to his parents in exchange for the substantial legal bills and child support that they had been covering.
In her decision, District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam stated that the purported "pledge" of the vehicle, even if done with good faith and not as a means of evading the forfeiture law, does not circumvent a section of the Road Traffic Act that requires the court to order the vehicle's forfeiture in certain circumstances.
Lee is currently serving about six years and eight months of a total sentence.
He has two lifetime driving bans, one for an incident in 2017 in which he dragged a police officer who was locked in the door of his Maserati along the road. The second was issued in 2022 for offenses included driving while suspended and evading the police again.
Under the Road Traffic Act, if a repeat offender uses a vehicle he owns to commit certain offences, the public prosecutor may seek for the car to be forfeited, and the court must order it, under certain circumstances.
Lee and his sister had asked the court to return the Maserati, arguing that it had been pledged as collateral by Lee's parents.
According to Lee's sister, the vehicle was given to his parents in exchange for money paid to Lee for his legal bills in 2019 via a verbal arrangement.
She stated that his elderly parents also supported Lee's two daughters in Japan.
FINAL ARGUMENTS
On Monday, each side presented a last argument to the court in support of its position. Monday, Lee's sister stated that she was seeking resolution to the matter.
"I would want to emphasize that the event occurred in November 2017 and that it is now 2023," she stated.
She stated that she had been pushing for a resolution and that "I believe we all want to go on with our lives."
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