American hauled to court after hurling vulgarities at director of Shashlik Restaurant

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
August 3, 2023

A man was hauled to court on Thursday after he allegedly unleashed a torrent of vulgarities at a director and shareholder of Shashlik Restaurant at Far East Shopping Centre in June.

Greg Austin Lynn, an American, is also said to have told Mr Tan Tong Kein that he would close the establishment down, adding: “I will (deal with) every family member you got from here to China… because I own China too.”

Lynn, 54, was handed four charges on Thursday, including two counts of harassment.

According to court documents, he allegedly hurled vulgarities at Mr Tan during a phone call at around 8.30pm on June 18.

Lynn is accused of continuing with his expletive-laden tirade against the man at the Orchard Road eatery when he turned up there about 40 minutes later.

He is also said to have used criminal force on Mr Tan by pushing his chest.

Lynn was at Tanglin Police Division in Kampong Java Road, near Newton Road, on June 20 when he allegedly refused to sign a statement by a police officer. Details about the contents of the statement were not disclosed in court documents.

On Thursday, Lynn told District Judge Lorraine Ho that he will be claiming trial and will not be engaging a lawyer.

He said that he has been coming to Singapore since 1996 and is familiar with the laws here.

Lynn told the court that the matter has dragged on for more than a month and accused the police of not doing their due diligence.

He also accused the police of intentionally dragging the matter to inflict harm on him.

His case has been adjourned to Aug 11.

For each count of harassment, an offender can be jailed for up to six months and fined up to $5,000.