Sea crew trainee gets a week’s detention order for inviting colleague to hotel room while on stay-home notice

SINGAPORE — While under isolation last year in a hotel that was a designated Covid-19 quarantine facility, a sea crew trainee invited his colleague into his room to chat, just three days short of the end of their stay-home order period.

The colleague, who had stepped in and out of his own room several times, later bumped into the hotel duty manager along the corridor, prompting the manager to review closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage.

The sea crew trainee, Yeo Ee Kai, 27, was sentenced to a seven-day detention order on Friday (Aug 26) after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit an offence under the Infectious Disease Act.

Offenders who receive this community-based sentence will have to serve time behind bars, but they will have no criminal record when released.

For exposing others to the risk of Covid-19 and failing to wear a mask when he left his room, the colleague, Thanasegaran Elancharan, faced 10 charges. He was later sentenced to three weeks’ jail and a fine of S$1,000 after pleading guilty on Oct 5 last year.

The two men arrived in Singapore on April 30 last year from the Dominican Republic, on board the vessel APL Barcelona.

Both were served with a 14-day stay-home notice from that day until May 14. They were informed that they were not allowed to leave their respective rooms at all times during that period or have visitors inside their rooms, under Covid-19 regulations here.

Yeo was assigned to hotel room 350 of the Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre, off Orchard Road, while Thanasegaran was put up at room 354.

Court documents showed that Yeo sent a WhatsApp message to Thanasegaran asking to chat in person.

Thanasegaran left his room at about 3am on May 11 without wearing a mask and took along a bottle of whisky to share with Yeo. He returned to his own room more than an hour later.

Later, Thanasegaran again stepped out of his room at around 4.30am, but was caught red-handed by the hotel duty manager.

A review of the CCTV footage showed that Thanasegaran had left his room a total of five times without putting on his mask.

Their case was then referred to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority for investigation.

Anyone found guilty for the first time of failing to comply with stay-home notice requirements can be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to six months, or both.