22-year-old fined S$1,500 for breaching Covid-19 quarantine order half an hour before it ended; lawyer says he misread it

SINGAPORE — A 22-year-old financial advisor was fined S$1,500 in a district court on Wednesday (April 29), after leaving his home half an hour before his quarantine order ended to have breakfast at a nearby coffee shop.

Tay Chun Hsien had mistaken the end time of the quarantine order to be 12am instead of 12pm, his lawyer Richard Siaw told the court.

Tay pleaded guilty to a single charge under the Infectious Diseases Act. He could have been jailed up to six months, fined up to S$10,000, or both.

The court heard that when he was suspected of being a Covid-19 contact, he was ordered to remain in his Chua Chu Kang flat between March 19 and March 22 till 12pm.

However, at about 11.30am on March 22, he left home and walked to a Kopitiam food court at Yew Tee Square to have prata for breakfast.

He took seven minutes to walk there, and ate his meal at a table in the food court.

At about 11.40am, a Certis Cisco officer who had been assigned to check that Tay was complying with the order made a video-call to Tay’s mobile phone.

When Tay answered, he was still eating at the food court. He explained that he had left home to get food as he was hungry and complied when the officer told him to return home immediately.

He eventually reached home at about 12.08pm after the officer made two more video calls to check on him, the court further heard.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew sought the fine imposed, saying Tay’s culpability and risk of transmission was low.

In mitigation, Mr Siaw sought to explain how his client had breached his quarantine order shortly before it ended.

Tay had been served a written order, which stated that he ought to remain at home “until 22 March 2020 @ 1200 hours”. 

Mr Siaw said that Tay misread the timing as he was on long-term medication, with side effects that included difficulty sleeping and anxiety.

“Routinely, he could only manage to sleep at about 5am and get up around 2pm. When the quarantine order was served on him at about 10am, he was probably not as alert as he should have been… and made a very silly mistake,” the lawyer added.

Tay’s offence was unintentional, out of character and one-off as well, Mr Siaw said. 

He had not “blatantly” breached his order like Alan Tham Xiang Sheng, who was jailed last week, for six weeks, for breaching his 14-day stay-home notice by remaining outdoors for more than four hours, the lawyer added.

Even though it was not mandatory to wear a face mask outdoors at the time, Tay wore one and “observed safe social distancing”, Mr Siaw told the court.