George Clooney's sister-in-law faces drink driving and other charges in Singapore court
CORRECTION: Tala Alamuddin Le Tallec is out on bail of $20,000, including an amount of $5,000 for an application to leave jurisdiction. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that she was out on bail of $5,000.
SINGAPORE — The sister-in-law of American actor and filmmaker George Clooney appeared in a traffic court in Singapore on Thursday (15 August) to face a total of four charges including for drink driving and driving without a licence.
Tala Alamuddin Le Tallec, 47, a Singapore permanent resident, is accused of having close to three times the legal limit of alcohol in her breath while she was driving a car along Holland Road towards Ulu Pandan at about 2.30am on 14 May.
Tala, who is the older sister of Clooney’s wife Amal, allegedly had 95mcg of alcohol per 100ml of her breath. The legal limit is 35mcg per 100ml of breath.
Her charge sheet states that she was previously convicted for drink driving in a Singapore court on 15 April 2013.
While first-time offenders may be punished with a fine only, the punishment for repeat drink-driving offenders under the Road Traffic Act is a mandatory jail term of up to one year, along with a fine of between $3,000 and $10,000.
Tala also faces three other charges related to the same incident on 14 May - she allegedly did not have a valid Singapore Class 3 driving licence, she purportedly did not have an insurance policy against third-party risks, and she supposedly drove the car without its owner’s consent.
It is not known who the car belongs to.
Tala is out on bail of $20,000 and will be back in court on 19 September. She has engaged lawyer Shashi Nathan.
The maximum penalty for driving without a licence is a fine of up to $1,000 or up to three months’ jail for first-time offenders. Subsequent offenders face a fine of up to $2,000 and up to six months’ jail.
Those found guilty of driving without insurance can be fined up to $1,000 and jailed for up to three months.
The maximum punishment for driving a vehicle without its owner’s consent is a fine of up to $1,000 or up three months’ jail.
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