IT firm proprietor Ng Say Eng will be able to contest the next election as his $2,000 fine for operating an unlicensed employment agency in 2006 was reduced to $1,200 in an appeal on Friday.

Anyone fined $2,000 or more will not be eligible to stand for parliamentary election.

Ng, 34, was a Singapore Democratic Alliance candidate in the Tampines GRC in 2006.

He was represented by veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam, who was back in court after about eight years.

Mr Jeyaretnam had argued that the fine was disproportionate as the offence did not harm anyone, and said that Mr Ng had done some social good by hiring four disabled persons to help him at the firm.

In reducing the fine, Justice Tay Yong Kwang noted that Mr Ng pleaded guilty in the first place and was also a first offender. Neither was the offence prevalent and there was no loss to his clients.

He said the the $2,000 fine - which was "40 per cent of the maximum of $5,000 - was "manfestly excessive", given the "strong social benefit to disabled persons in the running of the enterprise." Mr Ng had paid the fine and will be refunded the difference.

On Nov 6 last year, Mr Ng pleaded guilty before District Judge May Mesenas to running the unlicensed employment agency from October 2005 to June 2006.

Representing himself then, he said that he was unaware that he required a licence. He also urged the judge to fine him less than $2,000 as he would otherwise be barred from contesting in an election for five years.

DJ Mesenas imposed the benchmark sentence of a $2,000 fine. The maximum was $5,000.

After his successful appeal on Friday, a happy Mr Ng told reporters: ?I?m very pleased with the outcome as I can now stand for the next election. ?I owe a big debt of gratitude to Mr JBJ.?

He said he plans to contest the next polls and would be joining the soon-to-be-launched Reform Party, which is being formed by Mr Jeyaretnam.

One of the last clients Mr Jeyaretnam handled before he was made a bankrupt in 2001 was opposition politician, Dr Chee Soon Guan, on charges for speaking at a public gathering without a permit.