Driving Instructor Sentenced for Sexual Assault of Underage Student

A driving instructor who was a registered sex offender was sentenced  to three years in state prison for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female student, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.

Tom Mantung Lam akas Lam Man Tung, Jie Yao Li and Nam Tung Lam, of Montclair pleaded no contest on July 8 to one felony count each of child molesting with a prior, sexual penetration of a person under 18 and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime.

Lam molested the victim on March 7 during one of the driving lessons, prosecutors said. The defendant warned the victim not to report what happened to the police, prosecutors added. In 2015, the defendant was ordered to register as a sex offender after being convicted in two misdemeanor cases involving two separate underage students, one for child molesting and the other for sexual battery.

Case KA120518 was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

About the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey leads the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation. Her staff of nearly 1,000 attorneys, 300 investigators and 800 support staff members is dedicated to protecting our community through the fair and ethical pursuit of justice and the safeguarding of crime victims' rights.