15 weeks' jail for driving without licence and insurance

Behind the wheel under a driving ban, Hirwandy Taha stopped the car and swapped seats with his wife before approaching a police roadblock, although two police officers observed the switch in an incident which occurred in August 2003.

Yesterday, Hirwandy was jailed for 15 weeks and barred from driving for 12 years as the High Court dismissed his appeal against conviction and sentence for driving while under disqualification and driving without third-party insurance coverage, reported The Straits Times.

The English daily revealed that the case took more than 10 years to be tried because the couple left to Britain in September 2003 after he was charged in court, and only returned in May 2012.

Hirwandy had fought the charges, maintaining that his wife was the driver at the time. While the accused did not deny alighting from the driver's seat, he explained it was the result of a series of manoeuvres inside the car.

According to the English daily, Hirwandy claimed he had moved from the front passenger seat to the rear seat to attend to one of his twin daughters, while his wife was at the wheel. He went on to explain that he had no other alternative but to alight from the driver's seat - when the car stopped - as the rear doors were child-locked - resulting his wife to move to the passenger seat.

The Traffic Court convicted Hirwandy in December last year, finding that the alleged series of manoeuvres was "unreasonable" and "strange". Hirwandy appealed yesterday but the High Court saw no reason for disagreeing with the trial judge.

Hirwandy was first fined $2,000 and banned from driving for 30 months back in 2001 for driving without a valid licence, driving without insurance and making an illegal U-turn. He flouted the driving ban and in July 2003, was jailed for eight weeks and banned from driving for eight years. Hirwandy committed the current set of driving offences, within just a week of his release from prison.