TL; DR – Jail, fine and driving ban for the Bently driver who inched his Bently forward onto a security officer despite being told to stop.
Jail, fine and driving ban for rash act from Bently driver
61-year-old Neo Hong Chye was sentenced today (Wed, 19 Oct) to eight weeks’ jail and a fine of S$600. He was also banned from driving for 12 months. This comes after he pleaded guilty to causing hurt through a rash act outside Red Swastika School.
The 62-year-old security officer (coincidentally sharing the surname Neo) hurt his right knee as a result of Neo Hong Chye’s rash act of driving forward onto his knee despite being told to stop driving into the school compounds.
Additional crimes committed
Neo Hong Chye was charged along with his son, Glynn Neo Jia, who altered the car’s license plate on 11 January 2022 to allow his father to use the car without insurance coverage.
In justification of the change of car license plate, Glynn Neo reasoned that it was used for “photoshoot purposes” for his car business. He has yet to be dealt with by the courts.
Setting a bad example for granddaughter
On the day of the offence, Neo Hong Chye drove his granddaughter to Red Swastika School in the morning. While in the queue to enter the school compound to drop off his granddaughter, he turned impatient and attempted to ‘cut queue’ by leaving the lane to bypass other cars, wanting to enter via the exit lane of the gate.
Neo Hong Chye was naturally stopped by the security officer, who signalled him to move off to a side gate. Instead of leaving, Neo Hong Chye (in his car) inched forward for a good eight seconds while the security officer stood firm on the ground.
Neo Hong Chye then alighted to confront the security officer on why he could not enter the school premises. Red Swastika School’s operations manager turned up to defend the security officer, explaining that he went through the exit lane and asked Neo Hong Chye to leave and enter via the correct route.
Neo Hong Chye went back to his car and did not leave. He inched forward for another 15 seconds this time, causing the security officer to tumble onto the ground.
Bently driver “Genuinely remorseful”
Neo Hong Chye’s lawyer told the courts Neo was “genuinely remorseful” and did not sleep well after the incident. Neo also allegedly wanted to apologise to the security officer but was told to let the law take its course.
To everyone’s aghast, Neo’s lawyer said that Neo did not intend to cut the queue as he was not familiar with the route.
Neo could have been jailed for up to a year and fined up to S$5,000.