Singapore — After being arrested on Tuesday (May 25), 53-year-old Phoon Chiu Yoke claimed that she was not familiar with the new legislation that required her to wear a mask in public.
During her appearance in court on Monday (May 24), Phoon walked in without a mask on. However, after seeing press photographers, she hooked a mask over one ear. A security guard then told her to put the mask on properly and she complied.
Before District Judge A Sangeetha, Phoon stood in the dock and tried to take off the mask but was cautioned by the judge.
When leaving the State Courts, Phoon took off her mask and smiled at the photographers as she walked towards a pickup point.
In light of her behaviour, the police arrested her on Tuesday. A report by TODAY online said that Phoon appeared in court through a video-link from the Central Police Division, with her blue disposable mask covering only her mouth and not her nose.
Speaking to District Judge Adam Nakhoda, Phoon claimed that she was not familiar with “this new legislation” that required her to wear a mask in public. She added that after coming back from a six-to-seven-week holiday in Scotland, she had “never heard of this regulation to put on a mask”.
Phoon said she was only made aware of Singapore’s Covid-19 regulations after the incident at Marina Bay Sands on May 15.
MBS incident
Earlier in May, Phoon was caught on camera refusing to wear a face mask, despite being asked to do so by safe distancing ambassadors.
Phoon was spotted repeatedly asking for the safe distancing ambassadors’ badges as they advised her to wear a mask while queueing at Marina Bay Sands.
“If you have no badge, why are you asking me to do something?” she was heard saying. “Who are you representing?” she asked.
When the ambassador introduced herself, Phoon replied, “That’s what you say. I can say I am the police.”
The ambassador asked her once more to comply with safety measures; however, the woman repeated, “But you don’t have a badge.”
She eventually asked, “Are you harassing me? Are you creating a scene?”
She went back to her previous point about a badge. “If you want authority, then put on your badge.”
“I said to you, if you have no badge, don’t speak to me,” she told the other ambassador. “You have no right to ask me to do anything.”
Phoon faces face six new criminal charges, including failing to have a mask on outside the State Courts on Monday.
Her new charges comprise five counts of failing to wear a mask on separate occasions, and one under the Infectious Diseases Act of exposing others to the risk of infection by violating her stay-home notice when she returned from the United Kingdom.
She had allegedly left her MBS hotel room during the stay-home notice period — June 28 to July 12 last year — on several occasions while not wearing a mask.
District Judge Adam Nakhoda ordered her to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for two weeks for psychiatric assessment but Phoon asked for an “exemption” from the IMH remand.
She will return to court on June 8.
Anyone found not wearing a mask or not wearing it properly outside their place of residence can be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to six months, or both. /TISG