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Man drove hearse while drunk
31 Dec 2010
SOURCE: The Straits Times
A MAN who drove a hearse while drunk put himself and other road users in danger in January this year.
And it was not the first time the operations manager of a funeral services company was drink driving either.
Paramasivam Rajo, 48, had taken the wheel while under a two-year disqualification for a similar offence in April last year.
Yesterday, he was jailed two months and fined a total of $7,100. He was also banned from driving for four years.
Paramasivam’s defence, that he was responding to the urgent request of a client, cut no ice with District Judge Salina Ishak, who convicted him of driving while under disqualification, drink driving, and taking a vehicle out without motor insurance and without the permission of its owner.
The court heard the hearse was stopped at a police roadblock on Balestier Road at 12.10am on Jan31.
Officers, who noted Paramasivam’s alcoholic breath, flushed face and blood-shot eyes, subjected him to a breathalyser test, which he failed.
A second test at a police station 30 minutes later revealed 60mg of alcohol in every 100ml of breath, far in excess of the 35mg legal limit.
Investigations then revealed that the man’s boss was unaware he had taken the hearse.
Paramasivam, a father of three grown-up children, had also been fined $3,000 and disqualified from driving for two years in April last year for driving his car under the influence of alcohol.
Pleading with the court for leniency, defence counsel Rajan Supramaniam said his client was drinking in Little India that evening when he received a call from a customer urgently inquiring about funeral services for an ailing relative. Paramasivam rushed back to the office in Geylang Bahru.
But his attempts to contact the company driver were unsuccessful. When he discovered that other colleagues were busy with Thaipusam festivities, he then “foolishly decided to drive himself” to meet the client, the lawyer added.
Paramasivam was on his way home when he was nabbed. He could have been fined up to $10,000 and jailed up to three years for the offence of driving under disqualification.
31 Dec 2010
SOURCE: The Straits Times
A MAN who drove a hearse while drunk put himself and other road users in danger in January this year.
And it was not the first time the operations manager of a funeral services company was drink driving either.
Paramasivam Rajo, 48, had taken the wheel while under a two-year disqualification for a similar offence in April last year.
Yesterday, he was jailed two months and fined a total of $7,100. He was also banned from driving for four years.
Paramasivam’s defence, that he was responding to the urgent request of a client, cut no ice with District Judge Salina Ishak, who convicted him of driving while under disqualification, drink driving, and taking a vehicle out without motor insurance and without the permission of its owner.
The court heard the hearse was stopped at a police roadblock on Balestier Road at 12.10am on Jan31.
Officers, who noted Paramasivam’s alcoholic breath, flushed face and blood-shot eyes, subjected him to a breathalyser test, which he failed.
A second test at a police station 30 minutes later revealed 60mg of alcohol in every 100ml of breath, far in excess of the 35mg legal limit.
Investigations then revealed that the man’s boss was unaware he had taken the hearse.
Paramasivam, a father of three grown-up children, had also been fined $3,000 and disqualified from driving for two years in April last year for driving his car under the influence of alcohol.
Pleading with the court for leniency, defence counsel Rajan Supramaniam said his client was drinking in Little India that evening when he received a call from a customer urgently inquiring about funeral services for an ailing relative. Paramasivam rushed back to the office in Geylang Bahru.
But his attempts to contact the company driver were unsuccessful. When he discovered that other colleagues were busy with Thaipusam festivities, he then “foolishly decided to drive himself” to meet the client, the lawyer added.
Paramasivam was on his way home when he was nabbed. He could have been fined up to $10,000 and jailed up to three years for the offence of driving under disqualification.
The keling cud have then got away scot free. 
