Phoon Chiu Yoke, also known as the ‘badge lady’, was back in court earlier this year to face charges of breaching Covid-19 mask-wearing rules.
She was accused of going maskless three times at Orchard Road despite mandatory mask-wearing rules being in effect at the time.
Phoon has been convicted of all the charges levelled against her.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
In her arguments, she had said that the charges against her were “vindictive”.
Phoon, 56, appeared before District Judge Tan Jen Tse on Friday (11 Aug), reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
Upon convicting her, the judge said video evidence, as well as witness identification, had proven that she wasn’t wearing a mask on three occasions.
On the first occasion, she was maskless outside Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road between 3.02pm and 3.04pm on 6 Mar 2022.
The second occasion was on the same day between 3.35pm and 3.37pm. She was reportedly maskless while walking past a Victoria’s Secret outlet.
This was caught on video by influencer Xiaxue, who was even asked to testify against her in court.
Source: Xiaxue on Facebook
Lastly, Phoon was seen going maskless inside Ion Orchard on 16 Aug 2022, between 11.48am and 12.03pm.
Again, footage of this was recorded, this time on TikTok.
Source: @alexzellsim on TikTok
Mask-wearing was only declared to be optional outdoors from 29 Mar 2022. It was deemed to be optional indoors from 29 Aug.
Phoon thus had no reasonable excuse for not wearing a mask on those occasions, Judge Tan said.
However, Phoon, who represented herself, was unrepentant in her closing trial submissions.
She pointed out that Singapore no longer requires people to wear a mask today. Thus, she asked,
Why are we sitting here discussing an offence that is no longer an offence?
She went on to question,
Is there a victim in this case? Is there someone else who was seriously hurt because I was not wearing a mask? Were there huge financial losses incurred because I was not wearing a mask?
Phoon also questioned the prosecution’s purpose in prosecuting her, asking if they were trying to create “public awareness” or “deterrence”.
She also inquired as to the “purpose and motive” of hearing this case in court over 12 days, saying,
It comes across as being very vindictive.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Heershan Kaur said her actions were offences at the point in time when she committed them.
Besides three charges of going maskless, Phoon was also convicted of failing to attend an interview by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
The STB had wanted to interview her as part of their investigations into her offences.
DPP Kaur said that the STB had given her three chances to attend the interview.
For the first two times, on 19 Mar and 23 Mar 2022, she didn’t turn up.
She even made a police report on 24 Mar, alleging that somebody was impersonating STB officers.
When STB officers showed her their badges to prove they were legit, she said she would go to STB on 31 Mar.
Source: Google Maps
However, she didn’t show up again. Neither did she answer calls from STB.
On Friday (11 Aug), Phoon said she was a Singapore citizen who’d lived here for over 50 years.
Thus, she knows the STB “does not have enforcement power”, and “does not have the power to call any citizen to appear in front of their office for an interview unless I’m interviewing for a job”.
She filed a police report because she felt she had been preyed on by impersonators, she claimed, and she had to defend herself.
She had also experienced “a string of harassment incidents”, she maintained. But Judge Tan said she hadn’t submitted this at trial, nor did she give any evidence of this.
Now that she’s been convicted, Phoon will be sentenced on 11 Sep.
Of course, this isn’t the first time she’s been convicted of similar offences.
In September 2021, she was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail for not wearing a mask at multiple places, including at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
In light of this previous conviction, her punishment this time around could be more severe.
For the repeat offence of failing to wear a mask in defiance of Covid-19 laws, she could be jailed for up to one year, fined up to S$20,000, or both.
This is twice the maximum punishment meted out to a first-time offender.
For the repeat offence of not complying with an officer during investigations under the Infectious Diseases Act, she could receive the same punishment.
At least now that mask-wearing rules have been relaxed, it’s unlikely she’ll be back in court again for these reasons.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook and Xiaxue on Facebook.
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