Police arrest man for leaving welfare home, issue stern warning for flouting safe distancing measures
On the morning of April 10, 2020, the police received a request for assistance from safe distancing ambassadors at Block 768 Woodlands Avenue 6, where a man was sitting on a bench that had been cordoned off.
SINGAPORE — A 63-year-old man was arrested for failing to return to a welfare home where he was a resident, after the police checked on him for refusing to leave a bench that had been cordoned off for safe distancing.
The man was issued a separate stern warning for failure to comply with safe distancing measures, the police said in a statement on Tuesday (April 14).
The incident occurred at 9am last Friday, after the police received a request for assistance from safe distancing ambassadors at Block 768 Woodlands Avenue 6. The police found the man sitting on a bench that had been cordoned off.
“Despite repeated advice by the safe distancing ambassadors and police officers, he refused to leave the cordoned area,” the police added.
The police also established that the man had failed to return to the welfare home where he stays and arrested him under the Destitute Persons Act. He was sent back to the home on the same day.
Singapore’s safe distancing measures, in force until May 4, stipulate that members of the public cannot loiter or eat in a public area even if they are by themselves.
“The police would like to remind members of the public to comply with the instructions of the safe distancing ambassadors and police officers, who are doing their duty to keep the public safe.”
