Justice Lee Seiu Kin said that Johnson Fok Jun Hong, who has paid $32,500 of the fine so far, has been sufficiently punished.
The judge also took into account that Fok was suffering from depression at the time of his offences.
Fok had pleaded guilty last December to 26 charges of driving his Subaru Impreza without a valid supplementary licence between April and August the same year.
The car had been registered in 2007 as an off-peak car.
He admitted to driving the car on eight occasions and allowing it to be used 18 other times during the restricted period between 7am and 7pm on weekdays except public holidays. It was not made known who drove the car on those 18 occasions.
It was his third conviction for such offences.
In 2008, he was fined $1,000 for driving his off-peak car during the restricted period without a valid supplementary licence.
In 2009, he was fined $3,000 for repeating the offence.
For his latest set of offences, he was fined $5,000 on each charge by a district court after the prosecution asked for a deterrent sentence. The total fine was $130,000 and if he failed to pay, he would have had to serve 130 days in jail.
Fok paid an initial sum of $30,000 and applied to pay the rest in monthly instalments of $2,500.
But after the first instalment, the single father, who is currently unemployed, made no further payment and appealed to the High Court against the sentence.
Yesterday, not represented by a lawyer, he said that he had committed the offences because of a relapse of depression. He said he had used his parents’ and his own savings to pay the fine.
He said he did not seek treatment for his illness because he was worried that the side effects could affect the sales job he was holding then.
Justice Lee reduced the fine per charge to $1,250, making a total of $32,500 – the sum that Fok has paid so far, which means he need not make any more instalment payments.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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