Former actress-model fined for cursing at police, SMRT worker
Melissa Faith Yeo was fined for using vulgarities on two public service workers. (Photo: TODAY/Raj Nadarajan)
SINGAPORE: A former actress-model was fined S$5,000 on Wednesday (Dec 4) for using abusive language against a police officer and an SMRT employee in two separate incidents.
Melissa Faith Yeo Lay Hong, 33, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Protection from Harassment Act, with another two charges taken into consideration.
The court heard that Yeo was a property agent at the time of the offences. On the first occasion on Nov 21 last year, Yeo went to an assistant station manager at Bishan MRT Station to ask about the past transactions in her EZ-Link card.
The victim gave Yeo the last two transactions, but she sought more information and he directed her to a General Ticketing Machine.
Yeo went in that direction but returned to the control station soon after and scolded the victim, accusing him of giving her the wrong information and making her walk a distance away.
She later asked for a copy of the station's feedback form and as she took it from the victim, she pointed her middle finger at him and said "f*** you". Her behaviour was captured on closed-circuit television camera.
The assistant station manager lodged a police report over abusive behaviour towards a public service worker.
The second incident occurred on May 2 this year, when Yeo called the 999 hotline.
When asked what her emergency was, Yeo said: "I'm calling with regards to my IO, he's a f*****."
The police emergency hotline operator reminded Yeo to calm down and to mind her tone and language.
She was unhappy with these reminders and told the operator: "Don't tell me to calm down, calm down, calm down so that you can get away with your s***."
She also insisted on talking to a superintendent as she wanted to provide feedback about an investigation officer.
Defence lawyer Gerard Quek said his client had been "assaulted" by her neighbour before she called the police.
"She was assaulted by her neighbour who knows where she lives. She was at that juncture anxious and quite uncomfortable by the fact that at any moment or juncture, the neighbour might show up," he said.
State Prosecuting Officer Mohd Nasri Haron asked for a fine of S$6,000, saying that there were proper channels for Yeo to provide feedback if she was dissatisfied with the investigation officer for a separate case.
"There's absolutely no excuse for the abusive language used on the police officer," he said, adding that in the case of the SMRT worker, the man was being helpful and that her behaviour was "wholly uncalled for".
Yeo acted in 2014 movie Afterimages. For speaking abusively to public servants, she could have been jailed for up to a year, fined a maximum S$5,000, or both.
