Man who reeked of alcohol & refused to wear mask from Holland Village to Bishan MRT station arrested in Yishun

For causing annoyance to the public and verbally abusing public servants.

Zhangxin Zheng | August 25, 2020, 05:06 PM

A man who appeared to be drunk and created a scene on the train along the Circle Line and at Bishan station over the weekend has been arrested by the police.

In response to Mothership's query, the police confirmed that they received a call from SMRT for assistance at 201 Yishun Avenue 2 on August 23 at 3:51pm.

The 51-year-old was arrested for causing annoyance to the public when drunk under Section 14(2)(b) of the Liquor Control Act and using abusive language against a public servant.

Police investigations are ongoing.

What happened?

The man, whom the police said reeked of alcohol, was spotted confronting MRT staff on the train towards Marymount Station.

He allegedly boarded the train at Holland Village at around 3:30pm on Aug. 23 and was carrying bottles of alcohol in a plastic bag.

When asked to put on his mask, the man got agitated and started hurling profanities at the MRT staff with his mask pulled down on his chin.

In a separate video, the man was caught refusing to wear a mask at Bishan station again.

When the MRT staff urged him to put on his face mask at Bishan station, the man yelled that he did not want to wear a face mask as there is no need to do so if the rest are wearing their masks.

Margaret Teo, Chief Communications Officer of SMRT Corporation, told Mothership that the man was approached by the SMRT staff after being spotted on the train without wearing his face mask properly.

The staff asked the man to put on his face mask but received verbal abuse from the man instead.

The abusive behaviour continued so the staff activated the Transcom and the police were alerted to arrest the man.

"We do not condone any kind of abusive behaviour towards our staff as they do their best to provide a safe public transport environment for all commuters,” Teo said.

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