Maserati driver in cop-dragging case accused of driving dangerously again while under lifetime ban

SINGAPORE: A Maserati driver who was banned from driving for life last year after dragging a traffic police officer along the road with his vehicle is now accused of driving dangerously while under disqualification.

Lee Cheng Yan, 37, was out on bail pending appeal when the fresh offences allegedly occurred in February and March this year.

Lee - who was remanded two days ago - appeared in court on Friday (Mar 19) via a Zoom call for a High Court hearing intended for his appeal against the traffic cop incident. However, it was adjourned to a later date after he applied to discharge his counsel.

READ: Maserati driver barred from driving for life, jailed more than four years for dragging police officer in escape bid

In July 2020, Lee was given four years and seven months' jail, fined S$3,700 and banned from driving for life over an incident in 2017, where he defied a police officer's instructions to stop and later drove off with the officer hanging from the driver's door.

He dragged the officer for 124m, and the victim later fell off and suffered injuries to his knee, neck and back.

In his defence at trial, Lee had maintained that a man named Kelvin who was of similar height and build to him and wearing a similar white shirt was behind the wheel that day.

READ: Maserati driver who dragged police officer in escape bid misses sentencing for third time

10 FRESH CHARGES FOR TRAFFIC-RELATED OFFENCES

The prosecutor told the court on Friday that Lee has been given 10 new charges - including driving along Upper Boon Keng Road at about 2.30pm on Feb 13 and driving along Ang Mo Kio Street 32 at 12.40am on Mar 4.

He is accused of driving dangerously along Macpherson Road, towards Airport Road, in the wee hours of Mar 12. Charge sheets state that he drove at about 140kmh, above the limits of 50kmh and 60kmh at different stretches and drove through two red lights.

At about 4am that day, he also allegedly failed to comply with police instructions and drove a BMW through a police roadblock set up along Macpherson Road.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh told the court that Lee has been in remand since Mar 17, 2021.

After hearing the list of charges, Lee interjected to say: "They are not done by me."

However, he was stopped by the judge, who reminded him that he was in a court hearing and had to behave accordingly.

Justice Aedit Abdullah said Lee's sister had written to the court to say they wanted to change his lawyer.

Lee was represented at trial by Mr Balamurugan Selvarajan, and his lawyer in the appeal was listed as Mr Dhanwant Singh.

According to court records, Lee had been set for a trial next week for other pending charges. It is unclear if this will proceed as planned.