SINGAPORE – A British man pleaded guilty on Monday for breaching Singapore’s strict coronavirus rules by going out of his hotel room to meet his fiancée, even as he was following two weeks of mandatory quarantine.
Nigel Skea, 52, faces six months in prison for leaving his room three times on September 21 last year, one of which was to meet Singaporean partner Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai. His partner was not in quarantine but had a room booked in the same hotel.
Eyamalai, 39, who married Skea in November, pleaded guilty to encouraging him. Skea was also not wearing a mask, which is required in Singapore.
Skea was twice “loitering along the corridor” . Skea went to Eyamalai’s room 13 floors higher by making use of a stairwell through an emergency exit door, which she had opened for him, as per the charges.
“This is a classic tale of two lovers wanting to be together and trying to be as close as possible to each other, but breaching the law,” the couple’s lawyer SS Dhillon told the court.
Sentencing is expected to take place on February 26. Quarantine violations have a penalty of a fine of up to S$10,000 ($7,565) or up to six months in jail, or both.