French teenager fined £348 for licking a straw in Singapore
French teenager fined £348 for licking a straw in Singapore
Our Foreign StaffThu, July 30, 2026 at 1:40 PM UTC
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Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, arrives at court in Singapore - Suhaimi Abdullah /Getty
A French teenager was fined in Singapore after pleading guilty to a public nuisance charge for licking a straw and placing it back in a vending machine.
Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, was handed a Sg$600 (£348) fine after admitting to posting on social media a video of himself putting a straw he had licked back into the dispenser for orange juice.
The clip went viral shortly after the incident on March 12, triggering a backlash that led to his arrest in Singapore, which is known for its strict enforcement of public order and hygiene rules.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Kelly Ho said that, given Maximilien’s “age and nature of the offence”, alternatives like probation or a community-based sentence would not be imposed.
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Prosecutors agreed to the defence’s proposal for a fine, saying the offence was at the “lower end” of its seriousness and while hygiene was compromised, no member of the public used the straw, so there “was no evidence of harm”.
They added that Maximilien “pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity”.
Singapore is known for its no-nonsense approach to public stunts.
Last year it deported an Australian man at the end of a nine-day jail term for rushing film star Ariana Grande during the Asian premiere of Wicked: For Good.
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
