Man Who Posted ‘So What’ on FB After Gathering Illegally Fined $4.5K

What’s the one thing you’ve been told to do the most since Circuit Breaker started?

Stay at home.

If it wasn’t obvious enough, this also means no visiting other people inside their house.

Even when Phase One is implemented, this only allows for two family members at a time, and it’s only for visits to your own parents, grandparents or in-laws.

But if you really insist on breaking the rules, then COVID-19 won’t be the only you worry about.

I hope you have a big bank account.

The First Person ‘Award’

You know what they say: talk sh*t, get hit (with a fine).

This was especially true for Francis Soh Seng Chye, a 38-year old man was fined S$4,500 today (20 May).

Why? All for the silly reason of being at his cousin-in-law’s Circuit Road flat to have dinner.

This is also the first time someone has been dealt with under Regulation 6 of the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020, the rule which prevents social gatherings.

Not an achievement you want to get but hey, congrats anyway.

Image: quickmeme

The entire saga of when and how he broke the rule is even more cringe-worthy than you might think.

One Day After Implementation

Oh, yeah. You are definitely reading that correctly.

On 8 April, just one day after the implementation of the circuit breaker, Soh went ahead with the deed.

He met his cousin-in-law, Ms Lye Bao Ru, at her flat that evening to hand over the keys to the car they shared.

Since they worked as part-time private-hire drivers, seems like a normal interaction, right?

Well, it would’ve been, until Soh took Ms Lye’s offer to eat with her and five others. 

Image: MemeMaker

Two of them were even the latter’s children. Not sure about the safety of all this.

However, good criminals won’t let themselves get caught, right?

Soh, as you know by now, is a pretty terrible one.

He then decided to take a picture of the gathering with the caption, “After a long long long long super long day… we are having (an) illegal gathering… so what? Enjoy the food to the max.”

And posted it on Facebook. Which went viral.

This guy was seriously asking for it.

Others Were More Sensible

Of course, now his entire news feed knew about it.

His friends quickly questioned why he was even at a gathering during circuit breaker, obviously having more common sense than he did.

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Even his own ‘partner-in-crime’ Ms Lye asked him to take down the photo.

The funniest part was that one of his friends (I think no longer friends liao) eventually took it to Stomp and even Goody Feed, and well…

Image: Tenor

See la, ask for attention some more.

Serious Law Enforcement

Do you know who took this obvious defiance to the law seriously, however? Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kenneth Chin.

He said the case had even more weight when despite blatantly breaking the law, Soh went on to publicise his actions online.

DPP Chin initially sought a higher fine of S$5,000.

Image: Giphy

Should’ve just let it happen for all of Soh’s silliness.

As if that wasn’t savage enough, DPP Chin also revealed that Soh had a criminal record. Namely, for drug consumption and he was sent to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre on multiple occasions.

Soh did admit that it was childish of him to go and post something like that online. Alas, the damage was done and he could’ve even been fined up to S$10,000, jailed up to six months or both.

Stay home, readers, for the sake of your health, your family and in this case, your wallet.

And oh, by the way, the prosecutor had an answer to Soh’s “So what?”

He said, “What happens is you get charged, and when the rest of the nation is staying home this morning, you are here to face the consequences of your actions. I hope this answers your question, Mr Soh.”

Image: Giphy

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