People Had Come in Small Groups to 13-People Birthday Party at Terence Cao’s House

By
Sarah
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New information has been revealed about actor Terence Chao’s birthday party, which had breached COVID-19 regulations last year.

In October 2020, Cao allowed 12 people to come into his house for fellow actor Jeffrey Xu’s birthday party during Singapore’s Phase Two, during which a household was permitted to have a maximum of five visitors.

Cao, as well as former magazine editor Lance Lim Chee Keong, have been charged with flouting safe distancing regulations that were put in place during Phase Two of Singapore’s reopening.

Despite being aware that he would be breaching COVID-19 regulations by exceeding the capacity limit of five visitors, Lim invited three people to the party.

According to CNA, Lim was fined S$3,000 on Tuesday (18 May) for his actions. The judge had noted that despite being a guest at Cao’s house, Lim irresponsibly invited more people to the party.

Defence lawyers Josephus Tan and Cory Wong had asked for a fine of not more than S$2,500, raising that this was Lim’s first offence, with him likely not to repeat it as it was “wholly-out-of-character” for Lim.

Lim had also faced difficulties with finding employment during the pandemic.

“COVID-19 had indeed did Lance in twice over, the first being employment-wise and the second being offence-wise. He has learnt his lesson and he reiterates his genuine remorse,” his lawyers said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew instead argued that Lim was “nonchalant towards the laws enacted to protect Singapore against the global COVID-19 pandemic” and that a S$3,000 fine would help “deter like-minded offenders who place their personal interests over the public’s health.”

11 of the people who had been a part of the gathering have been fined S$300 instead of being prosecuted because of their lower “level of culpability”.

How Did Multiple Guests Arrive?

Well, the only way they could get past security was through small groups.

Apart from Lim and actor Shane Pow, the first guest to arrive was 22-year-old part-time model and actress Valnice Yek Jia Hui, who reached the condominium at around 8:00pm. She was invited by Pow, who was unaware that more guests were to arrive.

After that, 30-year-old sales manager Tan Jun Chuan reached Cao’s residence to surprise him, again not knowing that more guests were coming.

Between 9:00pm and 10:00pm, Eleanor Wang and Dawn Yeoh had joined the group, also unaware more guests would be arriving. By this time, there were already six guests in Cao’s residence—in other words, the COVID-19 regulations had been breached.

Between 10:00pm and 11:00pm, Debbie Lu (who also came to surprise Cao), Julie Tan, and Benjamin Heng entered Cao’s residence. Guess what? They didn’t know more than five people were coming to the party.

Finally, between 11:00pm and midnight, the last three guests—Sonia Chew, Jeffery Xu, and Jeremy Chan—enter Cao’s house. And again, they were also surprised that more than five guests were coming to the party!

I’m starting to think that nobody got the memo.

Apparently, what had happened was that Cao initially only invited Lim, Pow, Xu, Heng and Chan to his place.

Then, Lim invited Chew, Tan, Lu and Wang. The latter also invited Yeoh to the party.

Aiyo.

An advisory was also issued to the management of Cao’s condominium to remind them to ensure compliance with safe management measures.

As for Cao, he will return to court on 25 May 2021.

To understand why it’s risky to have gatherings without masks, watch this video to the end:

Feature Image: Instagram (Jeffrey Xu)

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

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Sarah
Email: [email protected]