Ex-actress Melissa Faith Yeo fined for abusing public workers
SINGAPORE — Model-actress turned property agent Melissa Faith Yeo was on Wednesday (4 December) fined $5,000 for verbally abusing an SMRT staff and a police hotline operator.
She pleaded guilty to two charges under the Protection from Harassment Act. Another two counts of a similar offence were considered in sentencing.
On 21 November last year, between 9.20pm and 9.30pm, Yeo went up to an assistant station manager at Bishan MRT station to ask about past transactions on her EZ-Link card. He gave her the last two transactions but she asked for a more detailed history.
The 63-year-old SMRT staff then directed her to a general ticketing machine about 50m away from the control station. The machine allows passengers to see their travel records. There was another such machine that was nearer to the control station, but it was out of service at the time.
Yeo went to check on her transaction history while the 63-year-old SMRT staff continued to serve other passengers.
“A while later, the accused came back to the control station and told off the complainant, accusing the complainant of giving her the wrong information and causing inconvenience to her by making her walk a distance away,” said State Prosecuting Officer Mohd Nasri Haron.
After scolding the SMRT staff, Yeo walked away but came back again a few minutes later to ask for a copy of the station’s feedback form. When the SMRT staff passed her the form, Yeo took it and then pointed her middle finger at him and said “F*** you”. Her abusive behaviour was captured on CCTV.
She also told him, “You are SMRT staff, you don’t have to be a d***”.
The SMRT staff made a police report on 4 December last year.
Abused police officers
On 2 May, at about 5.40pm, Yeo told a female police sergeant at Ang Mo Kio police division headquarters, “Police useless! F*** the police ah!”
About an hour later, at about 6.30pm, she called the police hotline ‘999’ from a HDB block at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 to say “hello” followed by “I’m calling with regards to my IO (investigation officer), he’s a f***er”.
Yeo’s call to the police hotline lasted for three minutes and 23 seconds. During the call, the operator repeatedly told her to calm down and mind her language and tone.
“However, the accused was unhappy about being told to calm down,” said prosecutor Nasri Haron.
“At one point, she said to the informant (the call operator), ‘Don’t tell me to calm down, calm down, calm down so that you can get away with your shit’. She finally insisted on talking to a Superintendent as she wanted to provide feedback about an investigation officer,” the prosecutor added.
The maximum punishment Yeo could have faced for each of her charges is a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year in jail.
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