Judge the judge

Re: “Judge fined for crash”, (BP, Jan 7).

Deputy chief justice of Region 5 Charnsak Somprayot should have been fired and jailed after causing an accident while driving drunk.

The Jan 6 TV evening news revealed that he’d driven against traffic on an one-way street, crashed head-on into another car, argued vehemently against paying for damages caused, refused to take a breathalyser test, and failed to stop to help a damaged party. He also stated that he was a judge — which was totally irrelevant to the case unless he was seeking favorable treatment.

As a judge, let alone a deputy chief justice, he knows that those charged with enforcing the law must themselves be role models.

Because he’s utterly failed as such, his punishment should have been double that of a non-judge. Also, his confession was of no help to the court, because his going the wrong way and refusing to be tested for alcohol were non-disputable and serious crimes. Thus, his initial sentence should not have been halved by the court.

The Ministry of Justice should immediately fire Judge Charnsak without pension for gravely damaging the international reputation of the Thai judicial system.

BURIN KANTABUTRA