French student Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien is fined 600 Singapore dollars for licking a straw and returning it to a vending machine.
French student Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien was fined 600 Singapore dollars ($465) after pleading guilty to a public nuisance charge for a social media stunt. The 19-year-old student admitted to licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and returning it to the machine while recording the video for his online followers. Prosecutors argued the act risked undermining public confidence in the hygiene of the machine. However, defense counsel Kalidass Murugayan noted that Maximilien retrieved the straw himself and intended to use it for his own drink, meaning it was never meant for others to use. The court decided not to order a community-based sentence, considering the student's early guilty plea and the fact that he was living in Singapore without family support. Following the incident, the company IJooz sanitized the dispenser and replaced all 500 straws. The company plans to upgrade its machines to include individually packaged straws to prevent future public nuisance issues.