Singapore fines French teen $465 for viral straw-licking stunt

Read the original at BBC News ↗
Cite

Guinto, J. (2026, July 30). Singapore fines French teen $465 for viral straw-licking stunt. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crrvqjw8epko?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

BBC News · collected 2026-07-30 · by Joel Guinto

Quick Summary

Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, a 19-year-old French student studying in Singapore, was fined S$600 ($465; £348) for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and putting it back into its dispenser. The incident occurred on March 12 at the Goldhill Centre, a relatively affluent neighborhood in Singapore. Over 500 straws were replaced by the vending machine company after the stunt went viral online. Maximilien pleaded guilty to public nuisance and was given a fine, which is within the possible range of up to S$2,000 for such offenses.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-21, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A 19-year-old French student, Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, has been fined $465 (or $600 Singapore dollars) by a Singapore court for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and putting it back into its dispenser. The stunt, which was posted on Instagram with the caption "city is not safe", sparked widespread online outrage. 500 straws were replaced in the machine's dispenser after the incident. Maximilien pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance, for which offenders in Singapore can face up to a $2,000 fine or three months in jail. The defence lawyer stated that Maximilien is "truly sorry" for his actions and has come to realize their consequences.

Written for “Viral Straw Licking Incident” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Viral Straw Licking Incident
Crime & Law · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
10
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 10 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
69/100
BBC News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-07-30 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

BBC News · 3541 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Joel Guinto
2 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Also by Joel Guinto
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

French Instagram Singapore The Straits Times iJooz

Subjects

Maximilien PERSON · 5× Singapore GPE · 4× Channel News Asia ORG · 1× Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien PERSON · 1× French NORP · 1× Instagram ORG · 1× The Straits Times ORG · 1× iJooz ORG · 1×

Narrative

Maximilien is "truly sorry for having caused all this trouble and he realises that what appeared to him at that time as something perhaps playful has turned out to be something very consequential," a defence lawyer was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-07-30
2026-07-30 · BBC News
Singapore fines French teen $465 for viral straw-licking stunt · assertive framing

Claims (10 extracted, 0 hedged)

- Published A Singapore court has fined a French student S$600 ($465; £348) for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and putting it back into its dispenser. asserted
court → publish → dispenser
Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance. asserted
Maximilien → plead → nuisance
Maximilien, who is studying in Singapore, posted the video of himself licking the straw on Instagram with the caption "city is not safe". asserted
city → study → caption
Many online reacted with disgust to his video, which was reposted on a community page and picked up by local news outlets. asserted
which → react → outlets
The company that owns the vending machine, iJooz, said it replaced all 500 straws in the machine dispenser after Maximilien's stunt. asserted
it → own → stunt
Public nuisance offenders in Singapore face up to a S$2,000 fine, three months in jail, or both. asserted
offenders → face → jail
Both the prosecution and the defence sought a fine for Maximilien. asserted
prosecution → seek → Maximilien
Maximilien is "truly sorry for having caused all this trouble and he realises that what appeared to him at that time as something perhaps playful has turned out to be something very consequential," a defence lawyer was quoted as saying by The Straits Times. asserted
lawyer → cause → Times
Serving freshly squeezed orange juice at S$2 per cup, iJooz vending machines are a common sight in shopping districts, train stations and housing blocks in Singapore. asserted
machines → serve → Singapore
Maximilien licked the straw from an iJooz machine in Goldhill Centre on 12 March, in one of the city-state's more affluent neighbourhoods, after a boxing workout, Channel News Asia reported. asserted
Asia → lick → workout
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