Actor Son Seung-won's sentence doubled to 2 years in drunk-driving appeal

Actor Son Seung-won, 36, had his one-year prison sentence doubled to two years on appeal Thursday, after being convicted of drunk driving for the fifth time despite multiple prior offenses — including driving the wrong way on Gangbyeonbuk-ro while heavily intoxicated.

The First Criminal Division of the Seoul Western District Court sentenced Son to two years in prison in the appeals hearing on charges of violating the Road Traffic Act, accepting the prosecution's challenge to the original ruling.

Son's girlfriend, identified only by her surname Kim, 30, who was jointly indicted on charges of helping him conceal evidence, received a suspended fine of 1.5 million won ($1,060) — the same as the original sentence.

The court said driving 7 kilometers while intoxicated and traveling the wrong way on Gangbyeonbuk-ro for about one minute and 30 seconds constituted a serious offense.

The panel added that Son had committed the same type of offense three times before the current case, including receiving a sentence of one year and six months. It said the original one-year term was too lenient when all the offenses were considered together.

Son was arrested on the spot last November after driving the wrong way on Gangbyeonbuk-ro for about two minutes while heavily drunk. He was indicted in February, and the trial court sentenced him to one year in prison. At his final statement before the appeals court on July 23, Son said, "I will never make this mistake again."

His blood alcohol level at the time of his arrest was 0.165 percent — more than double the 0.08 percent threshold at which a driver's license is revoked.

During the police investigation, Son falsely told officers that his designated driver had abandoned the vehicle, and was caught trying to have his girlfriend hide the car's dashcam footage.

Prosecutors had requested a four-year prison term in both the original trial and the appeal.

Son had previously received summary orders for two drunk-driving incidents in 2015. In 2018, while under investigation for allegedly rear-ending a taxi while drunk, he caused another accident in December of that year by driving without a license while heavily intoxicated — above the license-revocation threshold — in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The court sentenced him to one year and six months in prison, applying the aggravated punishment provisions of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Specific Crimes — commonly known as the Yun Chang-ho Law — on charges of causing injury through dangerous driving under the influence.

The Yun Chang-ho Law imposes harsher penalties for accidents caused by drunk driving. Son was the first celebrity prosecuted under it.