Singapore— Television actor Terence Cao’s lawyer said in court on Tuesday (Apr 27) that the celebrity will plead guilty to flouting Covid-19 regulations in October last year, when he hosted a birthday party for fellow actor Jeffrey Xu.
The party was attended by a dozen guests.
Cao will be in court on May 25 to enter his guilty plea.
Yahoo! Singapore quotes Cao’s lawyer SS Dhillon as saying the actor will be “taking a certain course” after representations were rejected by the prosecution.
The actor had thrown a birthday party for Xu on Oct 2 and 3, 2020, at his condominium at Daisy Road. At that time, Covid-19 regulations capped a maximum of five visitors for every household, as Singapore was still in Phase 2 of the country’s reopening, and stricter safe distancing measures were still being observed.
The public was first alerted to this breach of Covid-19 regulations when photos of Cao and 13 others, including celebrities deejay Sonia Chew and actor Shane Pow, were posted on Xu’s Instagram account and published in Shinmin Daily News.
Cao, Xu, Pow and Chew are Mediacorp artistes. Two other celebrities in the photos, Jeremy Chan and Julie Tan, are not with Mediacorp.
When the breach of regulations was made public, Mediacorp told Mothership, “We take this matter seriously. Safety is a priority. We constantly brief and remind our artistes to adhere to safe management guidelines both in their professional and personal capacities.”
Mediacorp also said the artistes “deeply regret” their actions and added they were apologising “for the mistake and assure everyone that this will not happen again”.
The other six guests who attended the dinner party have been identified as Heng Tee Kok, Tan Jun Chuan, Debbie Lu Shuyi, Eleanor Wang Chunwei, Valnice Yek Jiahui, Dawn Yeoh Yishan and Lance Lim Chee Keong.
Yahoo! added that Lim will also be entering a guilty plea next month to the charge of gathering outside his residence with 12 individuals who were not from the same household that night.
According to the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the other 11 people at the party were given a S$300 for their participation in the incident. This is due to the BCA’s decision to issue a composition fine in lieu of prosecution, after weighing the level of their culpability in the matter.
Should Cao and Lim be convicted of the breach of pandemic regulations, they may be fined as much as S$10,000 and jailed for up to six months.
/TISG
Terence Cao charged with breaching Covid-19 laws after birthday party with Mediacorp artistes