Couple fined for harassing nurse neighbour by shouting 'COVID spreader', spraying disinfectant

SINGAPORE: A man and his wife were fined on Tuesday (Feb 8) for harassing their neighbours, one of whom was then a nurse at Sengkang General Hospital.

Cheang Eng Hock, 57, and Lim Sok Lay, 48, shouted "COVID", "COVID spreader", "virus" and "virus family" at their neighbours and sprayed disinfectant towards their flat in Punggol between May 13 and May 15, 2020.

Cheang was fined S$1,200 for one charge of harassing his neighbours. Another charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.

Lim was fined a total of S$4,000 for her four charges, with a two-week remand at the Institute of Mental Health taken into account. Four other charges were taken into consideration.

Videos of the incident, which took place during Singapore's "circuit breaker" period, went viral on social media and prompted the neighbours to file police reports.

Sengkang General Hospital had also called on the public to respect its medical workers.

On Tuesday, Lim also pleaded guilty to shouting Hokkien and Malay vulgarities at her neighbour on Nov 11, 2020, and spraying disinfectant towards their home on another occasion on Apr 10 last year.

Separately, she also caused a public nuisance at a hair salon in Ngee Ann City on Feb 21 last year.

Arguing that the harassment must be seen in the context of the neighbour's occupation as a nurse, Deputy Public Prosecutor Joseph Gwee initially asked for Cheang and Lim to be fined S$2,000 to S$2,500 each for the May 2020 dispute.

But defence counsel N K Anitha of Anitha & Asoka argued that the neighbour's job was not the trigger for the dispute.

Instead, she pointed to instances where the neighbour's wife, due to her work, brought migrant workers who were under temporary job placement to her home between April and May 2020. This was at a time of heightened fear of infection in migrant worker dormitories, according to the defence.

Singapore had more than 14,000 COVID-19 infections in migrant worker dormitories by May 2020.

Cheang took videos of the migrant workers leaving his neighbour's house to report to the authorities. He was confronted by his neighbour's wife, who called him a busybody and informed him that they were her housekeeping staff and were staying at her house with approval, according to the defence.

Ms Anitha said this issue was the trigger for the dispute and that prior to this, the neighbours had maintained a cordial and respectful relationship for about five years.

The prosecution said that Cheang and Lim's choice of words and behaviour in the dispute remained of primary relevance to the case. He left it to the judge's discretion to impose a lower fine if the court did not agree with the victim's occupation being an aggravating factor.