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A 46-year-old Singaporean man, surnamed Chan, was fined S$1,400 on May 30, 2023, after he pleaded guilty to two offences of smoking at a park shelter in East Coast Park (ECP) in March 2022 and residing in the same park shelter without a licence granted by the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation between April and May 2022.

Four other charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing, including entering and occupying a park shelter that was closed to the public during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), as well as residing in a public park without a licence from Mar. 13 to 18, 2022, and Mar. 22 to Apr. 7, 2022.

Refused to give particulars after being found smoking at ECP

According to court documents, at about 4pm on Mar. 24, 2022, officers from the National Parks Board (NParks) found Chan smoking a cigarette at a park shelter in Area F1 of ECP.

As it was an offence to carry out smoking activities at the park shelter where a "no smoking" signage was installed, the officers approached the 46-year-old and requested his personal particulars.

Despite repeated requests made by the officers, Chan was uncooperative and refused to provide his personal particulars.

As a result, NParks officers had to call for police assistance to obtain his particulars.

In the end, they managed to obtain Chan's personal particulars via the police officers who attended to the matter at about 4:40pm that day.

Residing in ECP without a licence

Between Apr. 8 and 17, 2022, NParks officers were conducting their routine patrol at ECP between 3am and 6am when they noticed that Chan was residing at the same park shelter consecutively on a daily basis with his personal belongings.

When officers resumed their daily patrol between Apr. 19 and May 1, 2022, they noticed that the accused had continued to reside at the said park shelter consecutively during the stated period, with the same personal belongings occupying the entire park shelter.

According to a photo collage provided by NParks, a man could be seen sleeping on a black camping bed in a park shelter on Apr. 8, 10, 21, and May 1, 2022.

He was also seen surrounded by a foldable table, a shopping trolley, chairs, and a few boxes.

Besides residing at a public park without being granted a lease or licence, Chan had also deprived genuine park users of using the park shelter by occupying it entirely with his personal belongings, said the NParks prosecutor.

Chan willing to plead guilty; judge asked him to remove personal belongings first

While Chan indicated his willingness to plead guilty to the charges on May 17, the judge asked him to clear his personal belongings from the park shelter first before doing so after learning from the prosecutor that Chan's items were still at the park, reported Shin Min Daily News.

The accused also said on May 17 that he did not know that he would need to apply for a licence before he could reside in the park and that he would serve the four-day jail term as he could not afford to pay the S$1,400 fine.

When the judge asked Chan whether he had removed his personal belongings from the park shelter on May 30, he confirmed that he had done so.

However, when asked whether he would like to make a mitigation plea for his case, Chan said he had nothing more to say and did not disclose why he resided in the park.

Top image via NParks & Xiaohongshu