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[Zuo Ci]

Re: 6 months jail for selling passport


Apr 5, 2011

Bangladeshi jailed, caned for molesting maid in lift

By Khushwant Singh

BANGLADESHI Jakir Abdul Khaleque, 36, was so taken in by a maid from Myanmar that he hugged, kissed and fondled her in a lift in Tampines at 6.45pm on March 3 this year.

The construction worker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in jail and six strokes of the cane on Tuesday.

Jakir told police he was attracted to the 23-year-old maid, who was returning from a nearby provision shop. He was then delivering construction materials to another unit.

 

[Chun Li]

Jewellery theft syndicate busted by police
By Mustafa Shafawi | Posted: 05 April 2011 1737 hrs

SINGAPORE: Police have cracked a jewellery theft syndicate made up of three male Filipinos aged 54 to 63 years old.

The trio is believed to have stolen jewellery worth a total of about S$120,000 from several goldsmith shops and pawnshops.

Police said the trio targeted the shops when they were crowded during the peak hours.

The suspects took turns to ask counter staff to show them various pieces of jewellery.

While the staff was distracted, one suspect would use his body to block the view of the staff while another took the opportunity to steal jewellery from unsecured display cabinets unnoticed.

After committing the theft, the suspects would offer excuses and leave quickly.

The three were arrested near Geylang Road.

Several pieces of jewellery, which are believed to be stolen, were successfully recovered.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the suspects are involved in a total of five similar cases.

The suspects will be charged in Court on Wednesday for theft in dwelling. If convicted, they can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.

-CNA/ac

 

[Space Invaders]

Apr 6, 2011

Couple jailed for stealing a $15,000 diamond bracelet

By Elena Chong

A COLOMBIAN national and a young American woman were jailed on Wednesday for theft of a $15,000 diamond bracelet.

Rafael Alexander Gomez Bermundez, 33, was jailed for a total of 15 months after he admitted to stealing the bracelet from SK Jewellery at Bugis Junction Towers, and a $67,431 gold and diamond Rolex watch from Dickson Watch and Jewellery at Wisma Atria Shopping Centre.

The woman, Linda Tatiana Lopez, 21, was jailed for three months for stealing the diamond bracelet with Bermundez on March 26.

Bermundez, who acted alone in the Feb 27 theft, tried on two Rolex watches at the Orchard Road store. He returned one and hid the other under his sleeve without the sales executive's knowledge. He continued to make enquiries before leaving the store.

The court heard that he sold the watch in Thailand for US$5,000 (S$6,303.56) a few days later.

Police recovered the diamond bracelet from the couple's hotel room in Geylang Road when they were arrested on March 28.

 

[Sauron]

Apr 7, 2011

Four jailed over motorbike offences

By Elena Chong

FOUR deaf and mute Malaysians were jailed on Thursday stealing motorcycles in Singapore.

Muhamad Azizzat Adam, 23, who stole nine motorbikes in all, pleaded guilty to five counts of theft of motorcycles at Seah Im Road carpark and Bideford Road between last October and February this year.

He was sentenced to three years' jail and banned from driving for three years.

Muhammad Hafezan Azam Azhan, 21, was jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to one charge of stealing a $1,300 motorcycle with Azizzat on Jan 25.

A third accused, Mohd Zakirnorsahfiq Mustakin, 22, was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for 18 months on one count of theft of a $2,800 motorcycle with Azizzat at Bideford Road last Nov 10.

The 20-year-old woman, Nurul Shazehan Sam, who dishonestly received the $2,800 stolen bike from Azizzat at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on Nov 11. Azizzat has pushed the bike there to hide as he couldn't hide it the previous day. He was given eight months' jail and 12 months' disqualification.

 

[khunking]

British banker dies in fall from rooftop bar at luxury Singapore hotel

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>DM.has('',"article");</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>DM.has('js-article-text',"lightBox");</SCRIPT><!-- google_ad_section_start(name=s2) -->British banker dies in fall from rooftop bar at luxury Singapore hotel


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By Richard Shears
Last updated at 10:31 AM on 10th April 2011


A leading British banker has died after a dramatic plunge from the rooftop bar of a luxury Singapore hotel.

William Hart, head of sales at the Bank of China International in Singapore, fell from the seventh-floor bar of the boutique hotel after witnesses said he had climbed over a metal railing and glass barrier.

Police will tomorrow continue their inquiries into the death of the 37-year-old , which a spokesman described as 'mysterious and needing a full investigation'.

Exclusive: The Fullerton Bay Hotel in Singapore, where Mr Hart fell to his death

The case has been officially listed as 'an unnatural death'.

Police rushed to the waterfront after receiving an emergency call but Mr Hart's body could not be found immediately.

The search moved further up the Singapore River and his body was found about two hours later near the river bank.

A Singapore newspaper reported today that while it remains unclear how Mr Hart fell, one theory is that he had leaped from the rooftop in a game of dare.

Mr Hart's father has flown to Singapore from Hong Kong to collect the body of his son, who died shortly before midnight on Thursday.

It was only at the weekend that the first details of his death began to emerge.

Mr Hart was drinking with a group of people at Lantern, a bar at the top of the five-star Fullerton Bay Hotel, the newest hotel to be added to the Marina Bay waterfront.

It has spectacular views of the bay and the Singapore skyline and is a popular meeting place for ex-patriates working in the island republic.

Mr Giovanni Viterale, the hotel's general manager, told Singapore's Sunday Times newspaper that Mr Hart was with three other people, one of whom is believed to be a friend visiting from Canada.

There were almost 200 people at the bar when the incident happened, said Mr Viterale.

Mr Hart was not a regular customer there, he added.

Mr Viterale said no staff members had noticed Mr Hart climbing over the railing.

If that had been the case, he said 'we would have taken immediate and preventative action.'

 

[Hanzo Hattori]

Man who threw girlfriend over parapet pleads guilty
By Ong Dai Lin | Posted: 11 April 2011 1544 hrs

SINGAPORE: A tiff over chopsticks led to a man killing his girlfriend two years ago.

21-year-old, Tan Teck Soon, a Malaysian, pleaded guilty on Monday morning to culpable homicide by throwing his girlfriend over a parapet on March 7 2009.

On March 6 2009, at about 11.30pm, he and his girlfriend, Ms Chong Kar Yan met up with a friend at a hawker centre. She then went to order fishball noodles.

The couple then quarrelled because Ms Chong had asked Tan to help her get an additional pair of chopsticks but he refused. They continued quarrelling, when they went home that night, on the 12th floor of a block of flats in Ang Mo Kio.

Ms Chong said during the quarrel that both she and Tan would not change their tempers.

Tan took it to mean that she was trying to end their relationship. He decided to die with Ms Chong and pushed her over the parapet and she died from multiple injuries.

He then swung himself over but his fall was broken by metal scaffolding and he survived.

He will be sentenced on Friday.

-CNA/ac

 

[R y u]

Apr 14, 2011

Human smuggling kingpin nabbed
Chinese national believed to be linked to at least 200 illegals caught over the past five years

By Teh Joo Lin

Wu Feng Xia, nicknamed Ah Pang, is said to be a hard-bargaining snakehead, with little sympathy for clients who had cold feet - he did not allow them to drop out of the plan.

POLICE have nabbed a human smuggler believed to be the biggest kingpin ever caught for masterminding the illegal passage of Chinese nationals into Singapore.

Wu Feng Xia, 42, a Chinese national, is linked to at least 200 illegals arrested in the past five years.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.

[email protected]

 

[khunking]

He Never Said Sorry

Tragic lovers' tiff over a pair of chopsticks

The New Paper
Thu, Apr 14, 2011

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<!-- CONTENT NEWS: start -->[Photo: Miss Chong Kai Yan (above right) pushed to death by survivor, Tan Teck Soon (top left corner) at Block 565, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. She was found lying near some scaffolding which was part of lift-upgrading works.]
By Chong Shin Yen
A PAIR of chopsticks.
A late-night supper took a tragic turn after a lovers' tiff - over a pair of chopsticks.
The young couple had started a fight while tucking into a bowl of fishball noodles and the quarrel continued long after the youth took his girlfriend home.
Thinking that she was trying to end their relationship, Tan Teck Soon, then 19, decided to die with her.
He pushed Miss Chong Kar Yan, 20, over a 12th-storey parapet before leaping off seconds later.
Both landed on the ground.
She died, but he survived. Scaffolding had broken his fall and he miraculously escaped with no major injuries.
<!-- Start Photo Gallery --><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=620 align=center><TBODY><TR><TD style="FONT: bold 14px Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(51,102,204)" colSpan=5>Woman died over a pair of chopsticks
Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Deceased family, Shin Min Daily News & Lianhe Wanbao)</TD></TR><TR><TD width=120> </TD><TD width=120> </TD><TD width=120> </TD><TD width=120> </TD><TD width=120> </TD></TR><TR><TD width=120> </TD><TD width=120> </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=5> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- End Photo Gallery -->Yesterday, Tan, now 21, a Malaysian who worked as a welder here, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. He had initially been charged with murder.
Tan, who was represented by Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Sunil Sudheesan, will be sentenced on Friday.
The court heard that Miss Chong, also a Malaysian, and Tan had been introduced by a mutual friend, Mr Chua Ooi Loon, sometime between August and September 2008.
Tan was from Johor Baru and Miss Chua was an Ipoh girl. The couple started dating a month after they met.
Miss Chong, who was living with her mother at a rental flat in Ang Mo Kio, was working as a waitress here.
On March 6, 2009, at about 11.30pm, the couple met Mr Chua at the hawker centre next to the Bedok bus interchange.
Tan wanted to return some money which he had borrowed from Mr Chua.
They sat at a table and Mr Chua went to order two bottles of beer. Miss Chong then ordered a bowl of fish ball noodles as she was hungry.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Eugene Lee told the court that the couple started quarrelling after the noodles arrived.
Miss Chong had asked her boyfriend to get an extra pair of chopsticks, but the latter refused. It is not known why she wanted the extra utensils.
She became unhappy and refused to talk to him.
After some time, she relented a little when Tan pacified her by feeding her a fish ball.
According to court papers, throughout the meal, Miss Chong kept making calls and sending text messages on her mobile phone.
At one point, she even walked to a nearby bench to talk on her phone. This made Tan unhappy and he kept looking in her direction.
When he approached her, she walked away. Angered, Tan went to his motorbike to smoke.
Noticing that her boyfriend had walked away, Miss Chong returned to the bench, still talking on the phone.
She was arranging with her best friend to meet in JB on their day off. Miss Chong did not mention on the phone the quarrel with her boyfriend.
Miss Chong's friend later confirmed with the police that she had spoken with Miss Chong at about 1am that night.
After both Miss Chong and Tan cooled down, they returned to the table to join Mr Chua. It was past 1am when the trio decided to leave the hawker centre.
<!-- CONTENT NEWS: end -->



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[Zuo Ci]

Man fined for cheating mobile service providers
By Jo-ann Huang | Posted: 21 April 2011 1934 hrs

SINGAPORE : A Chinese national, Shi Yonggang, was fined S$10,600 on Thursday for assisting another person to register more than 2,500 prepaid mobile phone SIM cards with copies of scanned passports from China.

On Tuesday, 33-year-old Shi had pleaded guilty to assisting Singapore citizen Han Yufei to cheat mobile service providers of registration incentives.

Han ran several businesses dealing with prepaid SIM cards and other telecommunication products and services.

He first contacted Shi, who was a high school classmate, in May 2009 about obtaining scanned Chinese passport copies.

Shi assisted Han to cheat SingTel from July 2009 to January 2010 by providing scanned passport copies through his contact "Dan Dan".

"Dan Dan" uploaded the scanned copies onto Shi's email account and Han subsequently downloaded and printed the passport copies from there.

Since 2005, all mobile service providers are required to capture and submit personal details of those registering prepaid SIM cards electronically through terminal devices provided by the mobile service providers.

This allows the retailer of each prepaid SIM card to be identified and is used by mobile service providers to compute retailers' registration incentives.

This was also part of a security review to boost Singapore's security.

By registering prepaid SIM cards with details from the scanned passports, Shi assisted Han in obtaining more than S$10,000 in registration incentives from Singtel.

Han and another accused Feng Min, a 31-year-old Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident, would sell the registered SIM cards through their retail shops or in bulk to other customers.

Shi, Han and Feng were arrested in January after an island-wide raid.

- CNA/ms

 

[Balrog]

Apr 26, 2011

Jailed for stealing engine control units of Mercedes cars

By Khushwant Singh

A district court heard that between August 2009 and November 2010, Cham Kok Wye, 36, rode off with nine of these engine components that can cost up to $4,000 each. On Tuesday, the unemployed man was jailed 2 1/2 years. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

A MALAYSIAN man would ride in on his motorcycle to steal the engine control units (ECUs) of Mercedes-Benz cars here but was caught when he returned to strike in the same Pasir Ris car park in 2010.

A district court heard that between August 2009 and November 2010, Cham Kok Wye, 36, rode off with nine of these engine components that can cost up to $4,000 each. On Tuesday, the unemployed man was jailed 2 1/2 years.

Calling him a 'professional thief', District Judge Francis Remedios said Cham came here with a specific plan and was 'clearly aware of the value of the stolen items and the ease of which these could be disposed of'.

Court documents indicated that he had sold four of the ECUs, which were worth between $1,100 and $1,600, for RM2,400 (S$990) each on his return to Johor.

When Cham had pleaded guilty last week, Assistant Public Prosecutor Raja Mohan told the court that the Malaysian also targeted the German-made cars in multi-storey car parks in Serangoon North, Hougang, Choa Chu Kang and Fernvale Lane in Sengkang.

On Sept 28, 2010, the Malaysian rode in at 1.30am and headed to Block 158A Pasir Ris Street 13. There, he smashed the rear right window of a Mercedes-Benz car with a metal rod that he had brought along.

He then got in and opened the bonnet. With his screwdriver, he removed the car's ECU, which is about the size of a paperback. With it safely concealed on his motorcycle, he left Singapore at about 5.30am the same day.

The next month in October, he struck in Serangoon North but returned to the same car park in Pasir Ris on Nov 19. It was then that he was spotted meddling with the engine compartment of another car by the police officer monitoring the closed-circuit television footage of the car park.

 

[Hanzo Hattori]

Apr 26, 2011

Mum who buried baby alive charged with illegal entry

By Elena Chong

On the previous Monday, a retiree was smoking at the sixth-floor garden of a multi-storey carpark when he heard what he thought was a cat mewing. He looked among the plants and found the muddied baby boy. If convicted, she can be jailed for up to six months and fined up to $6,000. -- PHOTO: SHIN MIN

AN INDONESIAN woman believed to have buried her newborn baby in a rooftop garden was charged in court on Tuesday with illegal entry.

Indriani, 27, who goes by one name, is said to have entered Singapore - without a valid pass - in or before February 2010.

Sporting long hair, the former domestic worker was arrested by police near Eunos MRT station on Sunday.

She was remanded at Bedok police division until May 4 for investigation as she is believed to be involved in other criminal cases, the court heard.

On the previous Monday, a retiree was smoking at the sixth-floor garden of a multi-storey carpark when he heard what he thought was a cat mewing.

He looked among the plants and found the muddied baby boy. If convicted, she can be jailed for up to six months and fined up to $6,000.

 

[Wei Yan]

Apr 30, 2011

Woman to hang for trafficking drugs, fiance acquitted
Couple caught with drugs; man didn't know it was heroin

By Selina Lum

WOMAN SMUGGLED 21.48G OF HEROIN IN CAR

Malaysian couple Mas Swan Adnan, 27, and Roshamima Roslan, 24, drove into Singapore through Woodlands at night on May 6, 2009, with 21.48g of heroin in their car.

Mas Swan Adnan was acquitted by the High Court as evidence showed that he believed his girlfriend when she told him that the bundles contained Ecstasy pills.

Roshamima Roslan was sent to the gallows for trafficking in 15g or more of heroin.

Roshamima Roslan, 24

A MALAYSIAN couple who were due to get married drove into Singapore two years ago with 21.48g of heroin bundles in their car.

The pair were caught, charged and put on trial.

On Friday, the High Court acquitted Mas Swan Adnan, 27, but sent his fiancee Roshamima Roslan, 24, to the gallows for trafficking in 15g or more of the drug.

In his judgment on Friday, Justice Steven Chong said the prosecution had to prove that the two of them knew exactly what sort of drugs they were bringing into Singapore.

Justice Chong said the evidence showed, however, that Mas Swan believed his girlfriend when she told him that the bundles contained Ecstasy pills.

Roshamima's claim was not believable, the judge said, adding that the prosecution proved that she knew that illicit drugs were hidden in their car when they entered Singapore.

Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.

[email protected]

 

[Masamune Date]

May 4, 2011

Jailed 5 months for molesting maid

By Khushwant Singh

AN INDIAN national tried to chat up a domestic worker at about 2pm on Feb 27 2011 in Tiong Bahru.

When the 28-year-old Filipino ignored him and entered a lift, Adaikalam Suresh followed her in and asked for her cellphone number.

Unsuccessful again, he grabbed her left breast as she was about to walk out of the lift on the 21st floor.

The 24-year-old labourer then fled but dropped his dormitory card in his haste.

On Wednesday, he was jailed five months by a district court after pleading guilty to outraging the modesty of the maid.

 

[Jabba the Hutt]

May 4, 2011

Trio jailed over Universal Studios e-ticket fraud

By Elena Chong

(From left) Foo Swee Siang, Ng Yit Pau and Ho Seek Fei were jailed between one week and two weeks on Wednesday for fraudulent possession of Universal Studios e-tickets. -- ST PHOTOS: WONG KWAI CHOW

THREE Malaysian men were jailed between one week and two weeks on Wednesday for fraudulent possession of Universal Studios e-tickets.

District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan who sentenced the trio said they were part of a syndicated operation, and imprisonment was appropriate.

Foo Swee Siang, 24, was a croupier at Resorts World Sentosa when he had 18 Universal Studios e-tickets suspected of being stolen or fraudulently obtained at RWS on April 12.

He and Ng Yit Pau, 26, who had eight such e-tickets, were each jailed for two weeks, while Ho Seek Fei, 26, was given one week for having two e-tickets on April 8.

The court heard that Resorts World Sentosa learnt of a fraudulent transaction of 138 Universal Studios e-tickets booked online using a Bank of Montreal credit card in early April.

The tickets were thus voided for guest entry on April 7.

When guests were found to have used the e-tickets which had been voided, they were stopped by a security officer.

Each of them (Foo, Ng) could have been fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to one year.

 

[Darth Vader]

May 5, 2011

Ex-programmer of CozyCot fined for software tampering

By Khushwant Singh

AN ANALYST programmer with popular online shopping website CozyCot modified a programme in September last year to get hold of the user names and passwords of members.

The company found out and on Thursday, Handy, who goes by one name, was fined $5,000 for this act of unauthorised modification of the software.

The Indonesian national, who is a permanent resident here, had tampered with the program last September (10) so that he could log in as the member and resolve any technical problems that arose.

A district court heard that in early October, the chief IT architect engaged by CozyCot conducted a routine audit and discovered that an additional line of command had been inserted into the programme.

Further checks showed that e-mail correspondence between members and the company was being forwarded to e-mail address [email protected].

This modification was subsequently traced to Handy and a police report was lodged on Oct 14.

[email protected]

 

[Hanzo Kattori]

May 6, 2011

American, Argentinians jailed for burglary

By Elena Chong

Jorman Alexis Hoyos, 19, together with Argentinians Ruben Dario Diaz,25, and Maximiliano Nazareth Segui, 29, were jailed for breaking into a house and stole about $11,000 worth of property.

THREE foreigners who were here on a holiday broke into a house and stole about $11,000 worth of property after running short of money.

Jorman Alexis Hoyos, 19, together with Argentinians Ruben Dario Diaz,25, and Maximiliano Nazareth Segui, 29, admitted to climbing over the wall of the premises in Thomson Ridge on March 5 and stealing valuables totalling $10,500 from accountant Lee Ying, 42.

The trio - who were given a 30-day social visit pass on Feb 22 - had taken a cab to the area on March 5 to look for a suitable target to steal.

They were arrested on March 10 at a hotel in Bencoolen Street just as they were about to leave Singapore.

Police recovered three jewellery items and a watch amounting to a total of $3,196. On Friday, Hoyos was sentenced to two years and three months for the offence.

Diaz and Segui have been dealt with earlier. Diaz was given two years and three months while Segui got two years' jail, the minimum. Each of them could have been jailed for up to 14 years.

 

[Jabba the Hutt]

May 11, 2011

Two foreign workers jailed for crimes at MBS

By Khushwant Singh

A Chinese national gambled with $250 in casino chips that did not belong to him while an Indian national stole $12,180 worth of electrical cables meant for Marina Bay Sands so as to get some money to bet with. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

A CHINESE national gambled with $250 in casino chips that did not belong to him while an Indian national stole $12,180 worth of electrical cables meant for Marina Bay Sands so as to get some money to bet with.

On Wednesday, the two construction workers pleaded guilty. Ni Guo Jian, 45, was jailed nine weeks for criminal breach of trust. Kakkayan Govindarasan, 26, was jailed seven months.

In both cases, it was closed-circuit television footage that led to their arrests. A district court heard that the theft of the cables on Feb 13, 2011 was discovered the next day.

CCTV footage from cameras installed in the basement where the storeroom was located, showed two men wearing surgical masks taking the loot to a van manned by two other accomplices. The registration plate number was visible and the group was arrested within days.

Kakkayan's three accomplices - also construction workers from India - were jailed seven months earlier. All had also admitted to stealing $7,065 worth of cables on Jan 30. This charge was taken into consideration by District Judge John Ng when passing sentence on Wednesday.

The same court had earlier heard that Ni - who has been here for nine years - had lost $400 at a dice table on March 22, 2011. He had only $15 left and was waiting to place a bet when he noticed that a woman did not realise that she had won and had walked away.

Telling the croupier he would pass the winnings to its owner, Ni collected the $250. However, CCTV footage showed him changing the chips into cash and leaving the casino five minutes later, only to return half an hour later, to gamble. Police were called and when arrested, Ni had on him nine $5 chips and $205 in cash.

 

[Wei Yan]

Four jailed for dealing with fake chips at casino
Posted: 10 May 2011 2138 hrs

SINGAPORE : Four Indian nationals were on Tuesday jailed for dealing with fake chips at the Marina Bay Sands casino on December 29 last year.

The men, all from Mumbai, had dealt with 39 counterfeit 1,000-dollar chips in all.

Three of the men will spend 42 months behind bars.

They are 24-year-old Vishal Sopan Gurav, a builder with a construction company, 24-year-old Kunal Balan Shettiyar, a technical support staff with an IT firm, as well as 28-year-old Maqsud Ibrahim, a salesman.

They each pleaded guilty to eight of 33 charges.

District Judge Wong Peck sentenced the fourth man, 33-year-old Soheel Ahmad Jamil Ahmad, to 39 months' jail, after he pleaded guilty to six of 33 charges.

Based on court documents, the men had worked with one Asfaq Usman, who is still at large after jumping bail.

Asfaq, a 25-year-old Indian national, who works in his family's hotel business, was out on a bail of S$60,000 after he was charged with the offence earlier this year.

It is believed that Asfaq was engaged in India by a man known as "Ijaz", who handed him the counterfeit chips.

Ijaz allegedly instructed him to visit the Marina Bay Sands casino and exchange them with genuine ones in smaller denominations.

The court heard that these would then be exchanged for cash.

Asfaq was also told that he would be given about S$1,000 after completing the job.

Ijaz also gave Asfaz S$1,500 cash and five sets of airplane tickets to Singapore.

Court documents stated that Asfaq recruited the four men in Mumbai who were each promised a sum of about S$550 for being part of the scam.

All five arrived in Singapore on December 29 last year and carried out their plan in the casino that very same day.

But their crime came to light after three innocent casino guests were caught later that evening trying to encash the counterfeit casino chips which they had unwittingly obtained while gambling.

Following an investigation, all five men were arrested at Changi Airport Terminal 2 on December 31 last year, just before they were about to leave Singapore for Mumbai.

In mitigation, defence counsel S K Kumar asked for a lighter sentence, saying that his four clients were merely following directions from Asfaq.

But DPP Lu pressed for a deterrent sentence, saying that the men were part of a syndicate that was "reasonably sophisticated".

Judge Wong said that she agreed with the prosecution, before sending the men to prison.

They could have been jailed up to seven years and fined a maximum of S$150,000 for each charge.

- CNA/ms

 

[Sun Quan]

Man jailed 7 months for stealing over $19,000 worth of cables
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 11 May 2011 1300 hrs

SINGAPORE: A construction worker, who stole S$19,245 worth of cables from a storage room at Marina Bay Sands, has been sentenced to seven months' jail.

Kakkayan Govindarasan, a 27-year-old India national, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one of two theft charges.

He told District Judge John Ng that he stole the cables as he wanted to gamble at the casino but had no money to do so.

Kakkayan committed the offence on February 13 with three other India nationals - all construction workers.

Two of them, 25-year-old Anandam Murugesan and 30-year-old Panneer Murugesan were also sentenced to seven months' jail earlier this year for taking part in the crime.

A third alleged accomplice, 38-year-old Ganesan Lakshmana hasn't been dealt with in court and his case is currently at the pre-trial conference stage.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Asran Samad said that the men arrived in a van at the basement four carpark of the attraction, where the storage room was located, at around 9.15pm that day.

Two of them acted as lookouts while the others, wearing surgical masks, went to the room - only to find the door secured with a chain and a padlock.

The Assistant Public Prosecutor added that Kakkayan went back to the van, took out a handsaw and used it to cut the chain.

The men then helped themselves to the cables before fleeing the scene.

They later sold their loot for about S$670 to a shop at Woodlands Road and shared the money among themselves.

The cables have not been recovered.

- CNA/cc

 

[khunking]

Body found in water tank

Body found in water tank

by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid
04:47 AM May 17, 2011
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SINGAPORE - Residents at Block 686B in Woodlands Drive 73 were greeted with gruesome news yesterday morning when they learnt that a body was found in a water tank on the rooftop. The water supply was stopped at about 11am, about an hour after the body was found.

The discovery was nauseating to a resident of the 15-storey block, who told MediaCorp that she had used the water for cooking yesterday morning. She said: "I am throwing the food away. I asked if we could bathe, but the people in charge said better not."

The dead woman is believed to be a 30-year old Indonesian maid living in the block. She had long hair and was wearing T-shirt and bermudas.

The body was believed to be discovered by a member of the public. The police received a call at about 10am and have classified the case as murder. A 27-year-old Bangladeshi man has been arrested.

According to Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao, some residents saw a couple quarrelling at the flat's lift landing on the 14th floor early in the morning.

Blood stains were found in one of the lifts as well as in the water tank.

According to national water agency PUB, the Sembawang Town Council took swift action once it was informed of the incident: It isolated all the eight water tanks serving the block and began washing, flushing and sterilising of the tanks and distribution pipes.

PUB said water supply to the block was expected to be restored by midnight yesterday.

It added that its officers were also on site to assist the town council, and they also provided water bags and a water tanker.

Notices of the disruption were put up to inform residents, who had to lug buckets of water from the washing area at the void deck to their homes.