Tourist who filmed himself licking straws in shops avoids jail but is fined hundreds
The tourist from France was slapped with a fine after licking straws meant for paying customers
The man licked straws(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A tourist has been slapped with a fine for hundreds after he went into a shop and licked all the straws. The French man, named as Didier Gaspard Owen Maximlien, went in the store and licked the straws which were being kept next to the orange juice machine.
In a clip he shared on his social media channels, he shared the supposedly funny moment where he licked the straws meant for paying customers before putting them back, as a prank designed to get online hits and views.
The video the young man posted “quickly went viral,” sparking an outcry in Singapore—a city-state known for its zero-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour and decency laws. Store staff also did not find it funny and reported him to police, and he was later arrested.
The tourist from France was slapped with a fine(Image: x)
The incident happened in Singapore and 19-year-old Maximilien appeared before judges where he admitted his manky crime and narrowly avoided jail.
While judges did not hand him a spell behind bars, they did hit him with a fine of 600 Singapore dollars, around £380, for the charge of disturbing public order.
Judge Kelly Ho said that “given the young Frenchman’s age and the nature of the offence,” alternative measures such as probation or community service were not appropriate and said she was no considering a jail term.
He was arrested for hygiene offences(Image: x)
Instead it was deemed that the offence was at the lower end of the severity scale.
They said that “while hygiene standards had indeed been breached, no one had used the straw”, and so there was therefore “no evidence of harm.”
The young man, who holds a student visa for Singapore, was allowed to stay in the country.
The court heard how the young Frenchman knew he was “likely to cause wrongful loss or damage” to iJooz, the company operating the vending machine, who had to replace all 500 straws in the unit, which was taken into account with the fine.
