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A 36-year-old Singaporean man, Lim Tian Yi, who breached Covid-19 safe distancing measures to organise a marketing event on a yacht last year, has been fined S$7,000 on Sep. 28.

According to court documents sighted by Mothership, Lim organised the four-hour event with his friend -- "Annie", in November 2020, and invited 11 influencers to participate in activities such as candle making, essential-oil making, and casual photo-taking.

The Covid-19 measures at the time only allowed gathering in groups of not more than five persons.

The event was organised to promote Ananya Retreat, a business involved in organising events such as retreats. It is understood that "Annie", whose full name is Lin Pei Ju, was a partner of Ananya Retreat at the time.

Lin, a Canadian by nationality and a Permanent Resident of Singapore, has her charge pending in court, the Straits Times reported.

The planning of the event

According to the court documents, the pair decided to work together to promote the retreat brand, and reached an agreement where Lim would source for influencers to participate in the event, while Lin would guide the influencers on the activities.

There was an understanding that photographs taken during the yacht event would be used for promoting Ananya Retreat on social media.

Lin, who was also the manager of the yacht, was in charge of seeking the owner's permission to have the event on the yacht.

Meanwhile, Lim engaged influencer Nicole Chen Lin to invite most of the influencers to the event, and all of the influencers knew about the purpose of the event and the activities of the day. The influencers were also aware that photographs of the event will be uploaded to social media.

The participants are as follows: Damian Tan Kar Sheng, 27; Sean Tan, 29; Titus Low Kaide, 22; Walter Soh Yon Zheng, 24; Nicholas Joel Leong, 26; Kuek Zi Yi, 32; Audrey Chen Ying Fang, 29; Chai Ann Gie, 28; Monica Tang Yifei, 34; Wang Zhiruo, 24.

Event day

Lim and Lin held a pre-event briefing to announce the activities of the day, while also reminding the participants to wear their masks unless they were eating or drinking.

The influencers were also split into two groups, with five males in one group, and six females in another.

While the five males were in the open-air upper deck taking photographs, the females were in the air-conditioned lower deck carrying out candle and essential-oil making. Subsequently, the groups swapped activities.

Lim was in charge of taking photographs on the upper deck, and Lin taught the influencers the process of making candles and essential-oil, while Nicole moved between the upper and lower deck to ensure the event ran smoothly.

According to court documents, Lim, Lin, and the influencers did not wear their masks during those activities.

Food and drinks were also served on board in buffet-style, and the participants consumed the food.

Before the event ended, Lim gathered Lin and 10 of the influencers for photos, and they failed to adhere to the five-person limit and 1-metre safe distancing measure.

Complaint from the public

A member of the public is understood to have contacted the authorities after seeing photos of the event uploaded to Lim's Facebook.

The authorities then began their investigations accordingly.

The Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) of the case sought a fine in the range of S$7,000 to S$9,000, and noted that there were "some attempts" to segregate the two groups of participant.

The DPP found the attempts to be "hardly mitigating", as the participants were all gathered on the yacht and Nicole was moving between the two groups during the course of the event.

Lim was fined S$7,000, while the other influencers were fined S$300 each, according to ST.

For the offence, Lim could have been jailed for up to six months, or fine up to S$10,000, or both.

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Top image via Lim Tian Yi/Instagram