Seven fined for flouting circuit breaker rules at Robertson Quay
Seven people were fined yesterday over their involvement in an incident last month when groups of people were seen gathering at Robertson Quay.
They had each pleaded guilty to one count of breaching circuit breaker measures on May 16.
Four of them - Britons Neil Gordon Buchan, 30; James Titus Beatt, 33; Joseph William Poynter, 35; and Perry Scott Blair, 38 - were each fined $9,000.
The remaining three - Austrian Michael Czerny, 45; and married American couple Jeffrey George Brown, 52; and Bao Nguyen Brown, 40 - were each fined $8,000.
On May 16, at about 6pm, Buchan, Beatt, Poynter and Blair ran into one another at Bar Bar Black Sheep, a bar at Robertson Quay. They bought alcoholic drinks there before walking along the pathway running parallel to the Singapore River towards Clarke Quay.
The group then bought more drinks at two other locations - Boomarang, another bar, and Italian restaurant Rosso Vino in Merbau Road.
They later stood next to the pathway near Rosso Vino where they chatted, drank and smoked for about 25 minutes before leaving.
The court heard that Bao and Jeffrey Brown went to Robertson Quay after exercising together, at about 6pm the same day.
DRINKS
They bought alcoholic drinks from TAP @ Robertson Quay, a bar, and went to a table nearby to drink, where they encountered Czerny walking his dog in the area.
The three chatted and drank for about 32 minutes, before the couple and Czerny parted ways.
Photographs of crowds along Robertson Quay, which showed people failing to keep a distance of 1m from one another, went viral on social media last month.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority subsequently issued a directive to some restaurants at Robertson Quay, barring them from selling alcohol for takeaway, as such sales contributed to more people gathering in the area.
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Manpower said that six of the offenders are among the 140 work pass holders who had their passes revoked between May 1 and June 25 for breaching circuit breaker measures, stay-home notices (SHN) or quarantine orders (QO). These individuals have also been permanently banned from working in Singapore.
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