Singapore fines French teen $465 for viral straw-licking stunt

A Singapore court has fined a French student S$600 ($465; £348) for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and putting it back into its dispenser.

Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance.

Maximilien, who is studying in Singapore, posted the video of himself licking the straw on Instagram with the caption "city is not safe".

Many online reacted with disgust to his video, which was reposted on a community page and picked up by local news outlets.

The company that owns the vending machine, iJooz, said it replaced all 500 straws in the machine dispenser after Maximilien's stunt.

Public nuisance offenders in Singapore face up to a S$2,000 fine, three months in jail, or both.

Both the prosecution and the defence sought a fine for Maximilien.

Maximilien is "truly sorry for having caused all this trouble and he realises that what appeared to him at that time as something perhaps playful has turned out to be something very consequential," a defence lawyer was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

Serving freshly squeezed orange juice at S$2 per cup, iJooz vending machines are a common sight in shopping districts, train stations and housing blocks in Singapore.

Maximilien licked the straw from an iJooz machine in Goldhill Centre on 12 March, in one of the city-state's more affluent neighbourhoods, after a boxing workout, Channel News Asia reported.