NEA Officer Vaped With Friend After Issuing Fine To Civilian For Smoking Illegally

Earlier this month, footage of an NEA officer vaping outside Golden Mile Towers after issuing summons to a man smoking illegally had gone viral.

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The post, shared by netizen Sam Sam has garnered nearly 4,000 shares at the time of writing.

You can find the post here.

Turns out, the officer was outsourced from a service provider engaged by the NEA. The service provider has since terminated the officer in question.

NEA officer issued summons to man for smoking illegally

According to The New Paper on Wednesday (27 Nov), the outsourced NEA enforcement officer attempted to saman a man for smoking illegally in Golden Mile Tower at around 5pm on 16 Nov.

The man was uncooperative and the cops were eventually “called in” to render assistance.

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Vaped outside Golden Mile Towers after issuing a summons

Once the summons was issued, the officer – donning a violet shirt – headed outside the building and used an electronic vaporiser while conversing with another man.

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The identity of the officer’s companion wasn’t disclosed but he was most likely the officer’s colleague.

NEA launched investigations “immediately” after they caught wind of the video.

E-vaporiser banned in Singapore

The New Paper reports that the service provider has since removed the officer from NEA’s contract after the agency confirmed that he had indeed used an e-vaporiser.

Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has also carried out enforcement actions against the offender under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act.

For possessing an e-vaporiser, the officer faces a maximum fine of $2,000.

Tasked to enforce the law doesn’t mean it’s okay to break it

We are glad that NEA did not compromise on personnel found guilty of illegal acts, and has swiftly brought the officer in question to task.

After all, he blatantly broke the law despite being all too familiar with it.

We hope this serves as a lesson to all enforcement officers, that they are not above the law even though they are tasked to uphold it.

Featured image adapted from Facebook.