Singapore court fines French teenager US$465 for viral straw-licking prank

C CNASouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-07-30 · 02:58 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min

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1_min

Word count

143_words

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0_cited

Entities identified

6_entities

Quality score

100_%

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Briefing Summary

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NEWSAR · AI

A 19-year-old French teenager, Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, was fined S$600 (US$465) in Singapore for public nuisance. On March 12, Maximilien filmed himself licking a straw from an iJooz vending machine and returning it to the dispenser before leaving with the drink. He then uploaded the edited video to Instagram. The clip went viral after being shared from his Instagram circle to a media outlet. Maximilien pleaded guilty to the public nuisance charge, with a second charge of mischief considered.

Confidence 0.85Claims 4Entities 6

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Article analysis

Model · rule-based

Framing

Legal & Judicial

Human Interest

Tone

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AI-assessed

CalmNeutralAlarmist

Factuality

0.90 / 1.00

Factual

LowHigh

Sources cited

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§ 03

Key claims

4 extracted

The incident occurred on March 12 after the teenager attended a boxing session.

factual

Confidence

1.00

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

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Confidence

1.00

A French teenager was fined US$465 for licking a straw and returning it to a vending machine in Singapore.

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Confidence

1.00

The video of the prank went viral after being recorded and forwarded to a media outlet.

factualdefence

Confidence

0.90

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Full report

1 min read · 143 words

A French teenager who posted a video of himself licking a straw and returning it to an iJooz vending machine in Singapore was fined S$600 (US$465) for public nuisance on Thursday.The clip had gone viral after someone in his Instagram circle recorded it and forwarded the footage to a media outlet, the defence said.Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance, with a second charge of mischief taken into consideration.On March 12, Maximilien attended a boxing session at Goldhill Centre. After this, he went to an iJooz vending machine there and bought a drink.He took a straw from the machine, licked about half of it and placed the contaminated straw back on the straw dispenser, filming the process. He then collected the drink, took the contaminated straw and left.Maximilien later edited the footage and uploaded it to Instagram.

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