A Singapore court fined a French student S$600 (US$465) on Thursday after he admitted posting a social media video of himself licking a drinking straw and placing it back into a juice vending machine dispenser. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, who is studying at a Singapore business school, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance; a second charge of mischief was taken into consideration during sentencing. The incident, which occurred at a shopping mall on 12 March, triggered a public backlash after the video spread rapidly online, prompting the operator of the iJooz orange juice machine to file a police report and replace all 500 straws in the dispenser.

Prosecutors and the defence both argued for a monetary penalty rather than imprisonment. The prosecution described the offence as being at the “lower end” of seriousness, noting that no member of the public used the contaminated straw and that there was “no evidence of harm.” They also acknowledged that Maximilien “pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity.” Defence counsel Kalidass Murugayan told the court the student had acted out of a misguided attempt to create a stunt for online followers, that he had retrieved the straw for his own use, and that he expressed “deep remorse.” The lawyer added that Maximilien, who had been living in Singapore without family support, would personally pay the fine.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Kelly Ho said alternative measures such as probation or a community-based sentence were not appropriate given the defendant’s “age and nature of the offence.” The maximum penalty for public nuisance is three months’ jail, a S$2,000 fine, or both. iJooz, the vending-machine firm, said it had sanitised the dispenser and would retrofit its machines with individually packaged straws and compartments that unlock only after a transaction.

The case highlights Singapore’s low tolerance for public-order stunts. City-state authorities deported an Australian man last year after he served a nine-day jail term for rushing a pop star at a film premiere. Immigration officials are now expected to review Maximilien’s student pass, prosecutors said, with the French national scheduled to return temporarily to France in September for his studies.