The latest ruling came after the High Court's Court of Appeal approved an appeal against the original sentence filed by the Department of Justice.

The defendant Law Siu-kin got drunk after a Sheung Shui barbecue party in March two years ago and insisted on driving when leaving. A friend surnamed Tsang tried to open the door to Law's car but was ignored.

Tsang was then hit and rolled over by Law's car twice. Tsang was rushed to a hospital but was eventually pronounced dead.

In District Court last April, Law was jailed for 22 months and saw his driver's license suspended for five years after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death, drunk driving, and failing to pull over his car after an incident.

The DoJ stressed in the appeal that Tsang, who kindly reminded Law not to drive, was hit and killed by Law's car. And Law only turned himself in and took an alcohol breath test two hours later after he refused to do so at first.

Due to the gravity of this case, DoJ said, the jail term should have been starting from four-and-a-half years for the three charges.

The defense for Law agreed that Law didn't commit the crime out of negligence, but noted that Law finished his sentence last June and has been working for an engineering company since November. The defense also called on the court to hand down a non-imprisonment sentence should the appeal be granted.

The appeal was finally granted by acting chief judge Andrew Macrae, justices of appeal Kevin Zervos and Maggie Poon Man-kay, who started the new jail term from five years.

Given that Law had pleaded guilty and finished his original sentence last year, the judges handed down a three-year term and ordered Law to serve the remaining sentence.