Man fined for threatening officer by saying he had COVID-19 when stopped for smoking and spitting

SINGAPORE: A man who was stopped by an enforcement officer for smoking and spitting into a drain refused to give his particulars and instead told the officer he had COVID-19 before walking away.

Poh Liang Chai, 43, was fined S$1,500 on Thursday (Nov 18) for one count of using threatening words towards a public servant. A second count of preventing the officer from serving a summons on him by walking into the lift was taken into consideration.

The court heard that Poh was smoking outside the lift lobby of a residential block in Tanglin Halt Road on the evening of Jul 3 this year.

The victim, a Certis Cisco auxiliary police officer, was with his partner conducting enforcement action on behalf of the National Environment Agency for offences such as littering, smoking, spitting and urinating.

The victim spotted Poh smoking and spitting and approached Poh with his partner, intending to take enforcement actions.

He introduced himself and his partner to Poh and explained the offence he had committed, but Poh started walking towards the lift lobby and refused to provide his particulars.

When the victim told Poh that he would have to call the police if Poh refused to give the information, Poh challenged him to call the authorities. He said he did not want to wait, and raised his voice.

In the course of their interactions, he said "shut up" and "I just 'kena' COVID", meaning he had just contracted COVID-19.

He then left by entering a lift on the ground floor. The victim chose not to follow him for safety reasons.

In reality, Poh was not infected with COVID-19 at the time. He told the court on Thursday that it was a misunderstanding as his English is "very bad".

He said his wife had contracted COVID-19, but he had not. His wife was taken to a quarantine centre while Poh was given a home quarantine order, which ended on Jun 28, 2021.

He told the court that he could not afford any fine imposed by the court as he was jobless and his wife was the family's breadwinner.

The judge imposed a fine of S$1,500, with a jail term of one week in default if he could not pay the fine. 

Poh then asked if he could serve his in-default jail sentence at home, so that he could take his child to school. He was told that there was no such arrangement, but was allowed to pay his fine in instalments by Mar 18 next year.

For using threatening words towards a public servant, he could have been jailed up to a year and fined up to S$5,000.