Siew Hanlong, 19-years-old, reportedly played a prank on his friends by lying that he had been infected with the “new Covid-19 variant” by posting onto his Instagram.
He said that he was going to die.
He pleaded guilty yesterday (2 November) to 2 counts of knowingly transmitting a false message under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act.
He was a student at the time of the prank.
What happened?
On 23 May earlier this year, he decided to prank his friends at about 1am and went to look for an image of a positive PCR test online, saving it onto his phone.
He then posted it on his Instagram stories.
He captioned his post: “Guys I got the new Covid variant bye I’m gonna die.”
He then posted another picture of himself in a hospital bed (which was from a previous hospitalisation for an incident that was not related), captioning it: “In ICU right now farewell guys”.
He was at home at the time was actually not infected with the virus.
15 minutes after the posts went online, he deleted the photos but they had already been seen his his followers.
An acquaitance of his, a full time NSF who was at Pulau Tekong, noticed his friends discussing Siew’s Instagram post on their group chat on Whatsapp.
He became concerned as he met him before 23 May, and was worried that he had contracted the virus.
He tried to get in touch with Siew but couldn’t, thus he then reported to his superiors that he was a close contact of a Covid case, sending them the Instagram stories that Siew had posted.
The NSF was then instructed to pack up, undergo a swab test and sent home; where he was isolated in his room.
His bunk was also disinfected and the military training schedule for the day was interrupted.
He was then told by Siew that it was all a joke, and the NSF then told his father and army trainers about it.
A police report was subsequently made.
Sorry for the prank
The judge said that although it was a prank, the resulting consequences that arose from his actions were very serious.
Siew said that he was sorry and wouldn’t do it again.
The boy’s mother then appealed to the judge to consider her son’s “bright future” and reiterated that he was very remorseful.
She said that he is still studying for a diploma.
The case has been adjourned to December and the judge called for a probation suitability report before sentencing.
Images source: Singapore Uncensored file photo and Singapore Army Facebook
