French student fined $465 for licking vending machine straw before putting it back in Singapore

A French student, Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, was fined S$600 ($465) in Singapore for licking a vending machine straw and putting it back.

Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to a public nuisance charge for filming the act at a shopping mall in March 2026 for social media.

The court imposed the fine without a community-based sentence, considering mitigating factors like early guilty plea and no evidence of public harm.

Prosecutors noted the stunt risked undermining confidence in vending machine hygiene but sought only the maximum fine of S$2,000.

Maximilien removed the contaminated straw for his own use, and immigration authorities will decide if his student pass can be retained.