Update, May 9, 2020, 12:35am: This article has been updated with more information from the police. The police clarified that the same woman was involved in two incidents on two separate days in the same mall.

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The police have arrested a 40-year-old Singaporean woman for voluntarily causing hurt to deter a police officer from carrying out her duty, insulting two mall staff, and not wearing her mask properly.

On May 7, 2020 at about 2.10pm, the police received a request for assistance from a crowd management staff deployed by Sun Plaza that a woman was uncooperative and refused to wear her mask properly at the mall.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the crowd management staff that day noticed that the woman was not wearing her mask properly when she entered Sun Plaza.

Despite repeated requests made by the staff to wear her mask properly, she refused to do so.

The woman also insulted the staff and hurled vulgarities at a security officer who came to assist.

When the police officers requested for her identity, the woman started peeling off the address sticker on her identity card.

When one of the police officers tried to stop her, the woman assaulted the police officer and remained uncooperative.

The woman was subsequently arrested by the police officers and investigations are ongoing.

Not the first time

It turns out this May 7 incident was not the first time the woman allegedly got into trouble with the existing regulations.

According to the police, a video of the woman making the rounds on social media was from a previous incident that occurred on April 29.

The same woman had berated staff at the mall and was uncooperative when asked to wear a mask.

As a result of this incident on April 29, which also took place at Sun Plaza, the woman had been issued a notice of composition of S$300 for not wearing a mask.

Penalties

The offence of voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from carrying out his or her duty carries a jail term of up to seven years, a fine or caning, provided that in exceptional circumstances imprisonment need not be imposed.

The offence of using insulting or abusive language with an intention to cause harassment to another person under the Protection from Harassment Act carries an imprisonment term of up to six months or a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.

The woman will also be investigated for not wearing her mask properly under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020.

The police will not tolerate such blatant disregard of the law and wilful breaches of safe distancing measures, the police said.

Replying to queries from Mothership, a Sun Plaza spokesperson declined to comment on the incident as it was under investigation:

"We won't comment as it is still under investigation. But we are trying our best to ensure that all shoppers are shopping in a safe environment, ensuring that all shoppers have their masks on and are adhering to social distancing regulations. Ultimately, everyone plays a part in this fight against the virus, especially during such a critical period.”

This included requiring shoppers to wear face masks and adhere to safe distancing measures.