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SINGAPORE: A freelance photographer was fined S$15,000 (US$12,000) on Friday (Jun 12) after flying a drone without the required permits and recording footage that included protected military areas in Western Singapore.<\/p>\n
Prayut Rittichaipornkul, a 32-year-old Thai national, pleaded guilty to two offences under the Air Navigation Act and Air Navigation (101 – Unmanned Aircraft Operations) Regulations. Another five charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing.<\/p>\n
Prayut, who is based in Bangkok, works as a freelance photographer for various companies.<\/p>\n
While in Thailand in 2025, he bought a DJI Mavic 4 Pro drone for commercial assignments and personal use.<\/p>\n
Before March this year, the Thailand office of C&R Interiors engaged Prayut’s photography services. C&R Interiors, a Singapore-registered company, also has offices in Thailand and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Its Singapore office is at 20 Joo Koon Crescent, near Pasir Laba Camp and SAFTI Military Institute, which are both listed as protected areas.<\/p>\n
In March, Prayut was invited by an employee of C&R Interiors to attend the opening ceremony of the company’s Malaysia office.<\/p>\n
Prayut decided to visit Singapore before heading to Kuala Lumpur. He arrived in Singapore on Apr 20 and visited the Singapore office the next day at the employee’s invitation.<\/p>\n
The employee asked him to assist with taking photographs and videos of the Singapore office for use in marketing materials in Thailand.<\/p>\n
Prayut initially used a handheld camera, but decided to deploy his drone because he was dissatisfied with the quality of the footage and photographs.<\/p>\n
At about 8.20am on Apr 21, 2026, he began operating the drone at the Singapore office. The flight lasted about 26 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 1,505 feet above mean sea level, or about 459m.<\/p>\n
He did not have the unmanned aircraft operator permit and Class 1 activity permit required to operate the drone in the course of his business.<\/p>\n
During the flight, the drone crossed into the protected areas comprising Pasir Laba Camp and SAFTI Military Institute.<\/p>\n
Prayut used the drone to record videos of the area surrounding the Singapore office, including the protected areas. He did not have a permit authorising him to record videos of the protected areas with the drone.<\/p>\n
At about 8.23am, the Republic of Singapore Air Force detected an unidentified drone flying into the protected areas and alerted the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).<\/p>\n
CAAS traced the drone to Prayut’s location at C&R Interiors’ Singapore office. Police officers were also dispatched to the location.<\/p>\n
The drone was seized and found to contain at least 18 video recordings. Three of the recordings had captured parts of the protected areas.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutor Johan Tay called for a fine of S$15,000, which was imposed by the court.<\/p>\n
For operating an unmanned aircraft for business without a permit, a person may be fined up to S$50,000, or jailed for up to two years, or both.<\/p>\n
A person who operates an unmanned aircraft over a protected area without a permit may face the same maximum penalty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE: A freelance photographer was fined S$15,000 (US$12,000) on Friday (Jun 12) after flying a drone without the required permits and recording footage that included…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--4faQIbj3--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/12\/screenshot_2026-06-12_170408.png?itok=H44gbKIO","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19144,792,3711,1148,1410,24639,439,4440,986,24637,24638],"class_list":["post-60194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-camp","tag-captured","tag-drone","tag-fined","tag-flying","tag-laba","tag-parts","tag-pasir","tag-photographer","tag-s15000","tag-safti","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}