SINGAPORE: A couple who was charged last year for committing mischief and being a public nuisance will be sentenced in a matter of weeks. Lim Sok Lay, 52, and Cheang Eng Hock, 60, poured coffee on a lion dance costume in 2023 as part of their attempt to prevent their son from participating in a competition.
It is not the first time that the couple has gotten into trouble. On May 21, 2021, they were charged with various offences after they had harassed their neighbour, a nurse working at Sengkang General Hospital, by repeatedly shouting “Covid spreader” at him and his family and spraying disinfectant toward their unit.
Read related: Couple who harassed nurse and family for a year, shouting, ‘virus, virus’, charged in court
On Monday (Feb 3), Lim pleaded guilty to one charge of mischief and another charge of criminal force.
The incident where Lim poured coffee on the costume and kicked its head occurred at the West Coast Community Centre in Clementi West Street 2 on July 29, 2023. She also pushed a man numerous times after suspecting that he had scratched the face of her grandson at a Punggol coffee shop.
She returns to court for sentencing on Feb 26, with two other charges to be taken into consideration. Her husband, meanwhile, is set to plead guilty on Feb 21. Like Lim, Cheang had also disrupted the lion dance and poured coffee on the costume.
CNA quoted Deputy Public Prosecutor Tin Shu Min as saying that the couple disapproved of their son’s participation in the lion dance troupe as Lim felt the other members were a bad influence on him.
The couple proceeded to West Coast Community Centre on July 29, 2023, aware that their son and his troupe were scheduled to perform that day. Lim kicked the costume, as well as poured coffee on it that stained it permanently, resulting in damage worth $1,330 since the costume could not be used any longer. Lim, whose misbehaviour stopped the performance for 10 minutes, was escorted out of the community centre.
The incident when Lim pushed a man occurred on Feb 1, 2023. Lim and her family were at a coffee shop in Punggol when the man, an acquaintance, offered to carry her five-month-old grandson, who was crying at the time. When they were home that night, after seeing a scratch on the nose of the baby, Lim concluded that the man was responsible for it.
On the following day, she confronted him and pushed him five times, with her lawyer telling the court she had done so due to worrying about the baby. Her lawyer also said she and her husband would pay for the damaged costume.
A person convicted of mischief faces a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both, while one who is found guilty of using criminal force is up to three months in jail, a fine of up to $1,500, or both. /TISG
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