Singapore — The 53-year-old woman captured maskless on video at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) turned up in court on Monday (May 24), again without a mask on.
The woman, Phoon Chiu Yoke, was supposed to go on trial on Monday on a separate charge of failing to wear a mask at Newton Hawker Centre on May 8 last year, during the circuit breaker.
She currently faces only this charge. However, the trial was adjourned pending further investigations into her other alleged offences.
TODAY reported the woman was not wearing a mask when she came to the State Courts. However, after seeing press photographers, she hooked a mask over one ear. A security guard told her to put the mask on properly and she complied.
Before District Judge A Sangeetha, the woman stood in the dock and tried to take off the mask but was cautioned by the judge.
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.”
When leaving the State Courts, Phoon took off her mask and smiled at the photographers as she walked towards a pickup point.
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