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Singapore

Man charged with leaving home 5 times while on stay-home notice

Man charged with leaving home 5 times while on stay-home notice

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

SINGAPORE: A man was charged on Monday (May 11) with leaving his home five times while he was on a stay-home notice.

Teo Say Leong, 64, returned to Singapore from Indonesia on Mar 20 and was ordered to stay home from Mar 20 to Apr 3, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a statement.

Teo is accused of leaving his home in Jalan Sultan four times between Mar 23 and Mar 26, exposing others to the risk of infection when he had reason to suspect that he was in contact with a COVID-19 case.

On these occasions, he left his home between 6am and 8am, charge sheets showed. The documents did not indicate why he left his home, but ICA said it was for "non-permitted purposes".

He spent about an hour outside in the neighbourhood each time.

Teo was nabbed after the fifth occasion, ICA said. Enforcement officers had visited his home on Mar 29 and found that he was not there.

He is accused of leaving his home to buy lunch at about 1pm and going to an open area nearby to eat it.

When he returned home, ICA officers reminded him that he had to stay home at all times during the 14-day stay-home notice period.

Teo told the court through a Mandarin interpreter that he intends to plead guilty and asked the judge to be lenient with him. 

He said: "I will plead guilty to everything. I never work. I'm old, I'm sick and need to exercise."

The judge told him that he was not the judge taking the plea and told him to save his mitigation for the appropriate stage.

Teo, who said he does not intend to get a lawyer, will return to court to plead guilty to the five charges on May 20.

For each charge under the Infectious Diseases Act and its regulations, he could be jailed for up to six months, fined a maximum S$10,000, or both.

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Source: CNA/ll(ac)

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