‘Badge lady’ convicted again of not wearing mask, says prosecution is ‘vindictive’

On the charge for failing to attend STB’s investigations, Phoon said she was a citizen who lived in Singapore for more than 50 years.

“Anybody who understands what is the STB would know that STB does not have enforcement power,” she claimed. “They do not have subpoena powers. They do 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 said she had filed a police report because she felt the STB officers were impersonators and she had to defend herself and inform the police.

She also said she filed the police report because of “a string of harassment incidents” she encountered. The judge told her that she had not submitted on this point nor given any evidence of this at trial and so could not do so now.

Phoon continued: “In 2021, when I was brought to the court for the same offence, I said to the court that I had medical conditions which many people with the same medical conditions would be dead and buried, on a life support machine or sitting in a wheelchair.”

“Again, there is no evidence of this,” cut in District Judge Tan Jen Tse.

Phoon also claimed that the investigating officer had committed contempt of court by retaining her passport “for no reason”.

“Your honour, it is the defence’s case that these charges should be dismissed with costs, and the costs should include the number of days my passport had been retained, which affected my citizenry rights to travel,” she concluded.

In response, the prosecutor said the claim that impounding a passport was contempt of court was not true and had nothing to do with the trial. 

On the fact that it was no longer illegal to go maskless today, the prosecutor said it was illegal at the time of Phoon’s offence.

On having to sit through 12 days of hearing, the prosecutor said: “(It’s) purely because of the accused person’s own actions. In fact, it’s because of her failure to attend STB investigations on three occasions that protracted investigations and led to the court hearing today.”

Judge Tan rejected Phoon’s submission that she should not have been charged at all, since it is no longer required to wear a mask in public.

“The key issue is whether the provisions were in force as at the date of the alleged offences, and not at the time the accused was charged or at present,” he said.

He said the videos tendered by the prosecution clearly showed that Phoon was not wearing a mask at the time of the offences.

In fact, for most of the time, her hands were in her pockets, he said.

He adjourned mitigation and sentencing to September.

For failing to wear a mask when required, Phoon could be jailed for up to a year, fined up to S$20,000 or both as a repeat offender. The penalties are the same for a repeat offence of not complying with an officer during investigations under the Infectious Diseases Act.