A Singapore court has fined French student Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien S$600 (approximately $465; £348) for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and returning it to the dispenser. Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance.

The incident occurred on 12 March in Goldhill Centre, an affluent neighborhood in Singapore, after Maximilien's boxing workout, according to Channel News Asia. He posted a video of the act on Instagram with the caption "city is not safe," which sparked widespread online disgust and was shared by local news outlets.

The company owning the vending machine, iJooz, stated it replaced all 500 straws in the dispenser following the incident. iJooz machines, serving freshly squeezed orange juice at S$2 per cup, are commonly found in shopping districts, train stations, and housing blocks across Singapore.

Public nuisance offenses in Singapore carry penalties of up to a S$2,000 fine, three months imprisonment, or both. Both prosecution and defense agreed on a fine for Maximilien.

A defense lawyer quoted by The Straits Times said Maximilien is "truly sorry for having caused all this trouble and he realises that what appeared to him at that time as something perhaps playful has turned out to be something very consequential."

Sources