'Five-Time Drunk Driver' Actor Son Seungwon Gets 2 Years in Prison on Appeal: "Bad Character"

Caught Driving the Wrong Way on Gangbyeonbuk-ro While Heavily Intoxicated
Instructed Girlfriend to Hide Evidence After Arrest

Actor Son Seungwon (36), who was sentenced to one year in prison in the first trial for repeating drunk driving five times, received a heavier sentence of two years in prison on appeal.

Actor Son Seungwon. Photo by Yonhap News.

On August 13, the Seoul Western District Court’s Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Ban Jeong-woo) overturned the original verdict of one year in prison for Son, who was prosecuted for drunk driving under the Road Traffic Act, and instead sentenced him to two years in prison.

The court criticized, "He instigated his girlfriend to hide the SD card from the black box, which served as evidence unfavorable to him, showing bad character," and added, "He also actively made false statements, such as claiming that a substitute driver abandoned the vehicle."

The court continued, "Driving under the influence for a distance of about 7 kilometers and traveling in the wrong direction on Gangbyeonbuk-ro for approximately one minute and thirty seconds posed a significant public danger." The judge mentioned Son’s prior drunk driving convictions and pointed out that considering he has reoffended, the previous sentence was too lenient.

However, the court also acknowledged some favorable circumstances, including his eventual admission of the crime, the fact that no actual traffic accident occurred, and his cooperation in submitting the SD card once the evidence-hiding was discovered. For his girlfriend, Ms. Kim, who was accused of assisting with hiding the evidence, the court upheld the first trial’s lenient judgment, maintaining a suspended sentence for a fine of 1.5 million won because the original ruling was deemed reasonable.

Son was arrested as a flagrant offender last November after driving in the wrong direction on Gangbyeonbuk-ro for about two minutes while heavily intoxicated, and he was indicted in February this year. At the time of arrest, his blood alcohol concentration exceeded twice the license revocation threshold (over 0.08%).

This was Son’s fifth drunk driving offense. In 2015 alone, he received summary orders for drunk driving on two different occasions. In 2018, while under investigation for hitting a taxi while drunk, he committed another drunk driving offense at a level warranting license revocation.

At that time, the court applied the Dangerous Driving Causing Injury clause under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, also known as the "Yoon Chang-ho Act," and sentenced Son to one year and six months in prison. The Yoon Chang-ho Act, which strengthened penalties for drunk driving accidents, was applied to a celebrity for the first time in Son’s case.

On July 23, prosecutors requested the court to sentence Son to four years in prison. In the first trial, the court took into account that Son was caught in the act, instructed his girlfriend to hide evidence, and had been criminally punished multiple times for drunk driving, and sentenced him to one year in prison. The court also ordered his immediate detention, citing concerns about flight risk.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.