SINGAPORE: A young man who made headlines in November 2024 after he inserted green beans into the tyre valves of several sports utility vehicles (SUVs) near his home due to environmental concerns was fined S$3,000 by a court on Thursday (Nov 6).
Twenty-four-year-old Benjamin Chia Yit Loong, a physics student in his final year at the National University of Singapore (NUS), pleaded guilty to one charge of mischief.
His lawyer, Anil Singh Sandhu, said Chia had been under considerable pressure during the tire-deflating incident and showed remorse later. Chia has also voluntarily compensated the owners of the vehicles whose tyres he deflated and has written them a letter of apology.
One of the SUVs sustained further damage when it was driven to a petrol station to have its tyres reinflated. The damage cost S$380 to repair, which Chia has also already paid for.
While individuals convicted of the offence of mischief may be jailed for up to two years in addition to being fined, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lu Huiyi pointed out that Chia has no prior convictions and has made restitution to his victims. Therefore, the prosecution solely requested a fine for Chia.
According to a CNA report, a spokesman for NUS stated that after the court proceedings, disciplinary action will be taken by the school.
The tire-deflating incident
At about 10 am on Nov 19, 2024, Chia bought a package of green beans and went to two multi-storey carparks at Blocks 519A and 517A, Woodlands Drive 14. He proceeded to approach a total of seven SUVs. For the first car he went to, he placed green beans inside all four tyre valves, which caused the tyres to deflate.
For the six other vehicles, he only did this with one or two of the SUV’s tyres.
This took him around two hours.
On the windshield of each car, he left fliers with a headline that read: “Attention — your gas guzzler kills.”
The flier, which is now part of court documents, talked about the climate emergency that the world is facing and said that “millions of people are already dying from climate-change related causes—drought, hurricanes, floods, forced migration, starvation”.
“SUVs and 4×4s are a disaster for our climate. SUVs are the second-largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade, more than the aviation industry,” it reads.
Chia was arrested on the same day he deflated the tyres. /TISG
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