S$5,000 fine for SAF regular, 28, who threw hot soup at hawker over wrong order

MINDEF has since suspended the man from his duties.

Alfie Kwa | February 20, 2022, 04:07 PM

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Kelvin Tan Chun Long, 28, was fined S$5,000 after he threw a bag of hot soup at a hawker after she got his order wrong, The Straits Times (ST) reported.

The incident occurred on June. 6, 2020.

Tan pleaded guilty to one charge of causing hurt by a rash act on Dec. 13, 2021, and was fined on Feb. 18, 2022.

A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular and captain, he is also currently suspended from his duties, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) told ST.

The case is being reviewed for the purpose of discharge proceedings.

What happened?

In court documents seen by ST, Tan had placed his order at a coffee shop stall at Woodlands Drive 71 around 1pm.

He had also ordered takeaways from other stalls.

When Tan returned to the stall about 15 minutes later, he discovered that the hawker had prepared fried bean curd instead of fried bean curd skin.

Unhappy about the mix-up, Tan demanded that the hawker, a 53-year-old Singaporean woman, redo his order.

However, she responded that she could not as the food had already been cooked.

As he turned to walk towards a nearby table, where the rest of his takeaway food was, Tan pushed the plastic bag containing his order from the counter to the floor.

When he reached the table, Tan picked up a plastic bag carrying a container of hot soup and flung it in the direction of the hawker.

He then walked away.

Several passersby chased him and Tan eventually returned to the store to apologise to the woman.

A police report was made later that day.

11 days of medical leave

The bag that Tan threw hit the woman's body and she felt a burning sensation on the right side of her waist.

According to ST, the hawker suffered a superficial partial-thickness burn wound on the right side of her abdomen.

Such burns typically cause blisters between the epidermis (outer layer of skin) and dermis (layer of tissue beneath the epidermis).

She was given three days of medical leave after her initial visit to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, and an additional eight days after another check-up at a polyclinic.

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