Singapore: Briton jailed for breaking strict quarantine
- 3 years ago
A Briton has been sentenced to two weeks in prison and a S$1000 fine ($753; £539) for breaking Singapore's quarantine rules by leaving his hotel room to visit his fiancée.
Nigel Skea, 52, walked up an emergency staircase to spend the night with Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai, 39, in September. The couple are now married.
Eyamalai was also given a week's prison sentence.
Singapore requires people to spend 14 days in a hotel upon arrival.
Earlier this month, Skea had pleaded guilty to one charge of contravening a control order and one of failing to wear a face mask.
Court documents said Skea had left his quarantine room at the Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore Hotel three times to visit Eyamalai, who had a booked a room in the same hotel despite living in Singapore.
Eyamalai admitted a single charge of conspiring to contravene a control order.
The court heard Skea walked up 13 flights of stairs to spend the night with Eyamalai, who opened an emergency exit door for him. They spent nine hours together.
Skea, from Southampton, had also been caught "loitering in the corridor" twice, according to the charges.
Singapore has been been one of the most successful countries in tackling the pandemic. Despite a big outbreak among low-income migrant workers, many of whom are housed in large dormitories with cramped facilities, local infection rates have for months been low.
Last June, a group of British men living in Singapore were banned from working there again after breaking lockdown to go on a "bar crawl".
They were also fined around S$9,000 each ($6,800; £4,893).
Source: BBC
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