A Singapore court has fined a French student S$600 ($465; £348) after he licked a straw from an orange juice vending machine and put it back into its dispenser. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, who is studying in Singapore, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance.
What did Maximilien post online?
Maximilien posted a video of himself licking the straw on Instagram with the caption
city is not safe. The video was later reposted on a community page and picked up by local news outlets, prompting many online reactions of disgust.
What happened to the vending machine?
The company that owns the vending machine, iJooz, said it replaced all 500 straws in the machine dispenser after Maximilien's stunt. iJooz vending machines serve freshly-squeezed orange juice at S$2 per cup and are a common sight in shopping districts, train stations and housing blocks in Singapore.
What did the court hear?
Public nuisance offenders in Singapore face up to a S$2,000 fine, three months in jail, or both. Both the prosecution and the defence sought a fine for Maximilien.
Maximilien is
truly sorry for having caused all this trouble and he realises that what appeared to him at that time as something perhaps playful has turned out to be something very consequential, a defence lawyer was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
Where did the incident happen?
Maximilien licked the straw from an iJooz machine in Goldhill Centre on 12 March, in one of the city-state's more affluent neighbourhoods, after a boxing workout, Channel News Asia reported.
The case has drawn attention in Singapore because of the public health and nuisance concerns raised by the stunt, but the court outcome was limited to a fine after both sides requested that penalty.
Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien remains identified as the French student involved in the incident, and the case has been widely discussed after the video circulated online.
