A Swedish national, Alkallas Karam, aged 23, who was in Singapore on an exchange program, was recently sentenced to four weeks in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal trespass. The charges stemmed from an incident where he unlawfully entered the restricted premises of the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix 2025 held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 4.
The events began when Alkallas expressed to his friends on October 3 that the tickets for the annual event were prohibitively expensive. Despite this, he decided to attempt to gain unauthorized entry the following day. At approximately 7 PM on October 4, Alkallas arrived at Gate 1 of the Circuit Park area. He encountered a male volunteer, identified in court documents as B1, who was tasked with scanning entry tickets. Alkallas initially approached B1, claiming his ticket was with a friend, and B1 instructed him to wait. About 30 minutes later, Alkallas approached the volunteer again, reiterating that his friend with the ticket was not present. The volunteer again refused him entry and told him to stand aside.
Undeterred, Alkallas began to persistently ask the volunteer for help. The volunteer, identified as B1, who was under 18 and whose details are protected under the Children and Young Persons Act, felt pity for the student and ultimately agreed to assist him in unlawfully entering the premises. When Alkallas joined the queue, he held out his mobile phone with a blank screen as B1 approached him. The teenager then pretended to scan the device, making it appear as if Alkallas possessed a valid ticket, allowing him to bypass the initial security check.
Once inside the F1 area, Alkallas proceeded to a service road situated behind the Paddock Club. The Paddock Club, located at the Marina Bay Street Circuit Pit Building, is a highly exclusive and restricted zone intended for VIP guests and F1 personnel, and entry required a special pass with multiple security checkpoints. Court documents indicated that an unnamed minister was among the guests attending the event in this high-security area that day.
At approximately 8:40 PM, Alkallas was walking along the service road when he noticed a bicycle chain securing a gate that led to the Paddock Club's rear entrance. This specific gate was unmanned and led to a tyre storage area. The prosecutor stated in court that Alkallas attempted to guess the lock combination by rotating the numbers. When he failed, he used his mobile phone to search for "how to pick bike lock number." Utilizing the information he obtained from his search history, Alkallas was successful in determining the combination, thereby gaining unauthorized entry into the Paddock Club.
Upon entering the exclusive area, Alkallas closed the gate behind him and randomly rotated the numbers on the lock to secure his breach. He then roamed around the ground floor, where F1 drivers and their guests were present. During this time, he made a video call to his sister, and both were seen laughing as an F1 driver walked past.
His infiltration escalated when, after using a toilet, Alkallas walked past an auxiliary police officer and proceeded through a door into the pit lane area, a highly restricted operational zone where F1 vehicles, drivers, and crew are situated during the race. Alkallas managed to take two photographs of the restricted area before the officer approached him and demanded to see his access pass.
Confronted, the student falsely claimed to the officer that he was able to enter the Paddock Club because the gate was unlocked and that he saw the padlock hanging by the side. The officer escorted Alkallas back to the gate to verify his claim, only to find the gate was locked. At this point, Alkallas changed his story, claiming he had locked the gate himself for "security reasons" after his entry. He persisted in denying that he had tampered with the bicycle lock until authorities challenged him with his mobile phone browser history, which confirmed his internet search for lock-picking instructions.
Alkallas's initial false claims that the gate was found unlocked necessitated a significant security response. Uniformed officers deployed to the high-security sector had to check the perimeter to verify his statements. Furthermore, the Security Command team had to recall officers from home between 12:30 AM and 2:00 AM to conduct a full-scale bomb sweep of the premises due to the severe breach of security protocol.
The event organiser, Singapore GP, also experienced substantial disruptions as a result of Alkallas’s unlawful actions. Court documents detailed that service delivery operations, including the restocking, cleaning, and resupplying of food and beverage services, faced major interruptions due to the mandatory bomb sweep, which required staff to clear the entire area. Staff members had to be activated during their designated rest time to open and unlock various areas for the security sweep. Additionally, several items and freight cargo packages that had already been pre-packed for the race operations had to be opened up for inspection during the sweep. Alkallas was eventually arrested on October 5. On December 1, he was sentenced to four weeks’ imprisonment for the criminal trespass offences committed on October 4, 2025.
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