A STALLHOLDER who operates runs the popular Adam's Cuisine stall in Adam Road Hawker Centre, was fined $2,000 on Friday for driving without a licence last year.

Edmund Balan, 30, was also fined another $1,000 for driving without insurance and disqualified from driving all classes for vehicles for three years.

His wife, Thilagam Krishnan, 44, was fined a total of $1,400 for allowing him to commit the offences with her car. She was also disqualified for a year.

The couple had claimed trial.

They pleaded guilty after Staff Sergeant Jason Tan Kang Pin and Sergeant Maszita Mazali told the district court that they were positive that it was Edmund who was driving his wife's Hyundai along the Central Expressway at 1.30am on March 8 last year.

The officers who saw the Hyundai ahead of them, signalled to the driver to move into the centre lane.

They became suspicious when it turned left into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 when the police car pulled alongside it.

The officers saw Edmund behind the wheel and followed the car into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and into Bishan Road where they stopped the Hyundai.

The cops said that they saw Edmund coming out on the driver's side while his wife came out from the front passenger side.

But the couple then claimed that the wife had been driving - a story they stuck to until mid-way of the trial on Friday.

After they pleaded guilty, the court was told that Edmund had previously been fined for speeding and had been jailed a month for driving while under disqualification in 2001.

Thilagam, who is a catering training officer with Singapore Airport Terminal Services, has no previous offences

Pleading for the lowest fine to be imposed, their lawyer, Mr Shashi Nathan said that Edmund's previous convictions were committed seven years ago.

Edmund took over the wheel that day as his wife was very tired after they had supper in Toa Payoh, said Mr Nathan.

They were returning to the Adam Road Hawker Centre to close the stall when police stopped them.

Edmund could have been jailed for six months and Thilagam to three months.