Vandalism Act

In addition to a fine or jail term, the Act imposes mandatory corporal punishment of between three and eight strokes of the cane for second or subsequent convictions.

The Children and Young Persons Act ("CYPA") states that the High Court may impose a caning penalty on juvenile offenders as well.

In 2010, a Swiss national, Oliver Fricker, pleaded guilty to charges of trespassing into a Mass Rapid Transit depot and spray-painting a train with an accomplice, and was sentenced to five months' jail and three strokes of the cane.

Singapore has also recently witnessed acts of vandalism like the theft of insulating oil from electrical power stations and the wanton damage to fountains.

[6]Taking part in the Parliamentary debate, the Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew commented that the bill, which sought to impose a mandatory caning sentence on persons convicted for the first time of vandalism with an indelible substance, was a "departure from what is normal criminal law legislation".

Jothie Rajah of the American Bar Foundation has argued that the actual target of the law was activists from the Barisan Sosialis, an opposition party harshly suppressed at the time, which used posters and graffiti to spread its message.

[4] In the 1994 case Fay Michael Peter v. Public Prosecutor,[8] the appellant's counsel made a similar argument, submitting briefly before the High Court that the original legislative intent behind the imposition of a caning penalty was to suppress violent political elements which existed in Singapore in the 1960s which had, among other things, inscribed anti-national slogans in public places.

Chief Justice Yong Pung How rejected this submission on the ground that there was no reason to deviate from the plain meaning of the words in the Act.

[25] A 32-year-old Swiss national, Oliver Fricker, was charged in court on 5 June 2010 for having allegedly trespassed into the SMRT Corporation's Changi Depot, a protected place, and vandalized a Mass Rapid Transit C151 train by spray-painting graffiti on it between the night of 16 May and the early hours of 17 May.

A Briton, Dane Alexander Lloyd, was also named on the charge sheet, but he was not present in court and was believed to have left Singapore for Hong Kong.

He also commented that "[w]hile some might regard graffiti as a stimulating and liberating activity that adds colour, spice and variety to a staid environment", such actions were "offensive to the sensibilities of the general public".

[29] Five youths were charged with vandalism for spray painting graffiti on a large wall panel on the top of the Block 85A Toa Payoh Lorong with expletives directed against the ruling party.

The youths had stolen spray paint cans from a parked truck and entered the rooftop of the HDB block to carry out the act.

[30] On 5 March 2015, two Germans, Andreas Von Knorre and Elton Hinz, were each sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane for breaking into SMRT's Bishan Depot in November 2014 and vandalising a C151 train cabin by spraypainting it.