KOR
Actor Son Seung-won (36), known as the first celebrity case under the "Yoon Chang-ho Law," has been sentenced to one year in prison and taken into court custody for his fifth DUI offense.
On the 11th, Judge Kim Hyung-seok of the Seoul Western District Court sentenced Son, who was charged with violating the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving), to one year in prison.
Son was arrested in flagrante delicto last November after driving while intoxicated and traveling in the wrong direction for approximately two minutes on the Gangbyeon Expressway in Seoul. At the time, his blood alcohol concentration was 0.165%, more than double the legal limit for license revocation (0.08%).
The court explained the sentencing, stating, "The defendant drove while intoxicated and attempted to conceal evidence, such as the dashcam, through his girlfriend after being arrested. We considered the fact that he drove in the wrong direction while heavily intoxicated, denied the crime and gave false statements after being caught, as well as his high blood alcohol level and history of repeated drunk driving."
His girlfriend, identified as Ms. Kim, who was tried alongside him for aiding in the destruction of evidence by hiding the dashcam storage device, received a suspended sentence of a 1.5 million KRW fine.
Son, who had been caught for drunk driving twice in the past, was previously sentenced to one year and six months in prison in 2018 for causing an accident while driving under the influence without a license and fleeing the scene. At the time, Son was recorded as the first celebrity to be charged under the "Yoon Chang-ho Law," which strengthened penalties for drunk driving immediately after its implementation.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)