Woman Fined $4,000 for Disrupting Lion Dance Championship and Assaulting Man at Coffee Shop

By
Loh Huey Xin
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Does the ruckus raised during a lion dance competition and the commotion at a Punggol coffee shop two years ago ring a bell?

Well, if it doesn’t, maybe it’s time to read the news more frequently. 

The culprit, a 52-year-old woman, has been fined $4,000 after causing a scene at a national lion dance championship and pushing a man at a coffee shop.

Lim Sok Lay faced four charges including assault, mischief, and causing public nuisance.

She pleaded guilty to two charges while the remaining charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

A judge at the State Courts handed down the fine on Wednesday, 26 Feb 2025.

Mother Opposed Son’s Lion Dance Participation

According to case details, the defendant had ongoing arguments with her son over his participation in a lion dance troupe.

She believed the troupe was a bad influence on him and didn’t want him associating with its members.

On 29 July 2023, her son went to West Coast Community Centre to participate in the Ngee Ann City National Lion Dance Championship divisional competition.

Before her son’s troupe was scheduled to perform, Lim and her husband, Cheang Eng Hock, 60, suddenly burst into the venue and caused a commotion.

She kicked over the lion head prop and poured coffee on it. The lion head could not be cleaned of coffee stains and became unusable, resulting in a $1,330 loss for the troupe.

The competition, which had about 200 people in attendance, was interrupted for about 10 minutes before Lim was escorted from the venue.

Her son’s team switched to another lion head and their performance order was changed from ninth to 15th. Her son still competed, completing difficult lion head manoeuvres, and the team won a gold award.

Separate Incident at Coffee Shop

Lim was also involved in another incident. On 2 February 2023, her five-month-old grandson was crying while dining at a coffee shop in Punggol.

A man she knew saw this and picked the baby up to help soothe him.

That evening, Lim noticed scratch marks on her grandson’s nose and suspected the man was responsible. The next morning, she returned to the coffee shop to confront him and pushed him five times before leaving.

Her lawyer explained that she acted out of concern for her grandson.

The Charges

The judge noted that while fortunately no one was injured when she pushed the man at the coffee shop, she still needed to be punished for her actions and fined her $1,000 for this incident.

For damaging the lion’s head, she was fined $3,000.

Her husband is scheduled to plead guilty on 19 March.

Reader: What a problematic couple. I guess birds of a feather do flock together…

The court also revealed that during the pandemic in 2022, the couple had insulted their neighbour, a male nurse, calling his family a “virus family” and spraying disinfectant at them.

This dispute was widely reported by the media at the time.

They were later charged with violating the Protection from Harassment Act and causing public nuisance, with the wife fined $4,000 and the husband fined $1,200.

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Loh Huey Xin