ICA officers at Woodlands Checkpoint told man to dispose of his cigarettes. He stripped nude instead

SINGAPORE — Annoyed that he had been held back by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers while entering Singapore through the Woodlands Checkpoint, a 53-year-old man decided to show he was unhappy by stripping completely naked.

On Thursday (Aug 25), Tay Hock Chye, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to a single charge of appearing nude in a private place, and was sentenced to spend four days behind bars.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Wong Shiau Yin told the court that Tay’s full-frontal display occurred on the evening of May 26 this year, when he was returning from Malaysia.

At the checkpoint, ICA officers found that he was in possession of a packet of cigarettes with non-standardised packaging.

Tay was then escorted to a passenger office within Woodlands Checkpoint, which DPP Wong said is deemed as a private place in that it is “not normally accessible to the public”.

There, two more officers showed up to attend to Tay, who was being uncooperative and observed to be intoxicated.

Tay was told that it was prohibited to take into Singapore cigarettes that were of non-standardised packaging, but he would be released as long as he disposed of them.

A description of the cigarette packaging that Tay had was not provided.

In the room, Tay seemingly got upset with the way he was being checked, DPP Wong said without elaborating.

Suddenly, Tay started removing all his clothes and exposed his penis.

The officers told him to put his clothes back on while they closed the office door.

DPP Wong told the court that the passenger office had glass panels surrounding it, so people could see what was going on inside. 

At the time, there were two female ICA officers within the office, as well as a female member of the public.

Tay eventually dressed himself, the prosecution said.

DPP Wong, who sought a short custodial sentence for Tay and left the duration to the court's discretion, said that this was not the first time Tay had displayed "undesirable behaviour" at Woodlands Checkpoint.

In 2016 and 2021, he was convicted and fined S$3,000 and S$4,000 respectively, for using abusive words against officers who were deployed at the checkpoints.

Anyone found guilty of appearing nude in a private place, but exposed to public view, can be fined up to S$2,000 or jailed up to three months, or both.