73-year-old Ferrari driver to be jailed after losing appeal

73-year-old Ferrari driver to be jailed after losing appeal

Shi Ka Yee, 73, who has hit the headlines several times this year for offences involving her Ferrari car, will have to go to jail for punching another driver during a traffic dispute.

Yesterday, the High Court dismissed her appeal to undergo treatment in place of serving four weeks' jail and a six-month driving ban for her assault on then 39-year-old Raphael Chong in 2014, after he refused to move his car for hers to pass and told her to not drive a Ferrari if she did not know how to drive one.

Justice Chan Seng Onn, who had ordered that she undergo a psychiatrist assessment by the Institute of Mental Health to see if she was suitable for a mandatory treatment order (MTO), rejected the appeal as the report came back in the negative.

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An MTO is a community sentence where offenders who suffer from mental conditions which have contributed to their committing the offence attend psychiatric treatment in lieu of jail.

The judge also rejected her request to see her regular psychiatrist in Hong Kong while on bail, pointing out that there are many psychiatrists in Singapore.

Shi, who was sentenced in March for assaulting the motorist, had also previously pleaded guilty to at least four other charges resulting from various incidents - including one in 2015 when she trapped a worker in a crane bucket high above the ground for trimming a tree on her property.

In another incident in 2016, she stopped her Ferrari in the middle of Orchard Road after a private bus driver sounded his horn at her for driving slowly.

She is awaiting sentencing for these offences.

Shi is currently out on bail and will be back in a district court on Oct 25, when a judge will decide when she should start serving her sentence.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.

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