SINGAPORE, July 30 — To prevent enforcement officers from taking action against a teenager caught smoking at the void deck of a public housing block, a man decided to eat the youth’s cigarette.

Ramamoorthy Reddiar Jayaraman, 53, then told the teen to run away from the National Environment Agency (NEA) officers who had wanted to take down the youth’s particulars.

The Singaporean was fined S$1,000 (RM3,444) after pleading guilty to a charge of obstructing an authorised officer from exercising their power under the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act 1992.

What happened

At about 8.40pm on March 18, Ramamoorthy was drinking beer alone at the void deck of a Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat in Hougang.

Smoking is prohibited at HDB void decks, and a "No Smoking” sign was also displayed there.

Ramamoorthy was joined by the teenager, who is unrelated to him and who was not identified in court documents.

The teenager began smoking a cigarette there.

That night, two NEA enforcement officers were scheduled to perform their checks around the Hougang void deck at about 9pm.

One of the officers saw that the teen was smoking at the void deck, and approached him.

She told the youth that he had committed an offence — for smoking in a prohibited place — and asked for his particulars.

The court heard that the teen had looked at the NEA officer with a "nervous expression”, but did not respond.

The officer then repeated her request for the teen to provide her with his particulars.

At this point in time, Ramamoorthy asked the youth to pass him the cigarette that he had been smoking, and the teen complied.

Ramamoorthy then put the cigarette in his mouth and ate it, before asking the teenager to run away. The youth did so.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lee said: "(Ramamoorthy) stated that he had acted on the spur of the moment as he wanted to help the teenager avoid having a blemished record at a tender age.”

Ramamoorthy, who was unrepresented, had earlier submitted a written mitigation plea, which was not read in court.

Addressing the court today, he said: "To be honest Sir, eating a cigarette... I didn’t know (it) is an offence in Singapore.”

Ramamoorthy also pleaded for leniency, stating that his wife was not working and that he was the sole breadwinner supporting his 84-year-old mother.

Responding to this, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan said he wanted first and foremost to disabuse Ramamoorthy of his error.

The judge said: "You are not here because you ate a cigarette.

"You want to eat all number of cigarettes, that’s entirely up to you, the court has no issue with that.

"You are here for the offence of obstructing the exercise of an NEA officer’s power,” which the judge added was a "very serious offence”.

For obstructing an authorised officer from exercising their power, Ramamoorthy could have been fined up to S$2,000 for a first offence, and — for a second or subsequent offence — been fined up to S$5,000, jailed for up to three months, or both. — TODAY