A 52-year-old woman, Lim Sok Lay, received a $4,000 fine after causing a disturbance at a national lion dance championship and pushing a man at a coffee shop.
Lim faced four charges including assault, mischief, and causing public nuisance. She pleaded guilty to two charges while the other charges were considered during sentencing.
The State Courts imposed the fine on Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
Lion Dance Incident
Court records showed Lim had ongoing disagreements with her son regarding his participation in a lion dance troupe. She thought the troupe negatively influenced him and opposed his association with its members.
On July 29, 2023, her son was at West Coast Community Centre to participate in the Ngee Ann City National Lion Dance Championship divisional competition.
Before her son’s performance, Lim and her husband, Cheang Eng Hock, 60, disrupted the event. She kicked over the lion head prop and poured coffee on it. The coffee stains made the lion head unusable, causing the troupe a $1,330 loss.
The competition, with about 200 attendees, paused for approximately 10 minutes before Lim was removed from the venue.
Her son’s team used a different lion head and their performance order changed from ninth to 15th. Her son still competed, performing difficult lion head movements, and the team won a gold award.
Coffee Shop Incident
In a separate event on February 2, 2023, Lim’s five-month-old grandson was crying while at a coffee shop in Punggol.
A man she knew saw this and picked up the baby to help calm him.
That evening, Lim noticed scratch marks on her grandson’s nose and believed the man was responsible. The following morning, she confronted him at the coffee shop and pushed him five times before leaving.
Her lawyer stated she acted out of concern for her grandson.
Sentencing Details
The judge noted that while no one was injured when she pushed the man at the coffee shop, she still required punishment and fined her $1,000 for this incident.
For damaging the lion’s head, she received a $3,000 fine.
Her husband will plead guilty on March 19.
The court also revealed that during the pandemic in 2022, the couple had insulted their neighbor, a male nurse, calling his family a “virus family” and spraying disinfectant at them.
This earlier dispute received extensive media coverage.
The couple was later charged with violating the Protection from Harassment Act and causing public nuisance, with the wife fined $4,000 and the husband fined $1,200.
