A 19-year-old French national has been fined S$600 (US$465) in Singapore after pleading guilty to public nuisance for licking a straw, returning it to a vending machine, and uploading the footage to Instagram.

Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, a French national aged 19, received the fine on Thursday after the incident on March 12 at a vending machine located in Goldhill Centre. Following a boxing session, Maximilien purchased a drink from an iJooz machine and removed a straw from the dispenser. He then licked approximately half of the straw before placing it back on the dispenser and filming the act. After retrieving his drink with the contaminated straw, he edited and uploaded the video to Instagram.

The clip gained widespread attention after someone in Maximilien's Instagram contacts recorded and forwarded the footage to a media outlet. The incident prompted iJooz to replace all 500 straws in the affected dispenser, incurring a cost of S$5. Maximilien pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance, with a second mischief charge considered in sentencing.

Both the prosecution and defence agreed that a financial penalty was the appropriate outcome. The defence had initially considered pursuing probation or community-based sentencing but cited logistical difficulties, noting that Maximilien's father works in France and no suitable local guardian was available to supervise probation conditions. The defence emphasised that the contaminated straw was never used by anyone else and characterised Maximilien's action as something he believed was playful before recognising its serious consequences.

District Judge Kelly Ho noted that probation would ordinarily be preferred given Maximilien's age and circumstances, but agreed the practical difficulties justified the fine instead. Under Singapore law, public nuisance carries a maximum penalty of three months imprisonment, a S$2,000 fine, or both. The prosecution did not seek compensation from the teenager.