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Singapore

Man charged with meeting another person for dinner during COVID-19 circuit breaker period

Man charged with meeting another person for dinner during COVID-19 circuit breaker period

File photo of the State Courts in Singapore. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)

SINGAPORE: A man was charged on Friday (May 8) with breaking a control order during the "circuit breaker" period meant to contain the spread of COVID-19, by meeting another person for dinner.

Francis Soh Seng Chye, 38, is accused of meeting an individual named Lye Bao Ru for "a dinner gathering" between 7pm and 8pm on Apr 8 at Block 82A Circuit Road.

Lye, whose gender was not revealed in the charge sheet, was not staying in the same residence as Soh.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement after the charging that Soh had attended a social gathering at Lye's home with five other people from Lye's household for about an hour.

By meeting Lye for dinner at the flat, he contravened Regulation 6 of the control order under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020, court documents said.

According to these laws, an individual must not meet another individual not living in the same place of residence for any social purpose unless otherwise permitted.

Soh intends to plead guilty and will return to court to do so on May 20.

If convicted, he can be jailed for up to six months, fined a maximum S$10,000 or both.

MOH said it will not hesitate to take enforcement action against those who fail to comply with COVID-19 regulations.

Soh is the latest in a slew of people who have been charged after they did not comply with laws enacted to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

So far, people have been charged with improperly wearing masks, leaving their homes without valid reason and verbally abusing health officers enforcing compliance with COVID-19 rules.

The cases that have concluded include a store packer who received five weeks' jail for breaching his stay-home notice to buy food, a man who was jailed seven months for verbally abusing and threatening police and safe distancing enforcement officers, a man who was fined for breaching his quarantine order half an hour before it ended and a man who was jailed six weeks for exposing others to the risk of infection by leaving his house while on a stay-home notice to eat bak kut teh.

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Source: CNA/ll(hs)

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