Thief's wife volunteers $31,000 restitution

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Thief's wife volunteers $31,000 restitution
Published on Sep 1, 2011

By Khushwant Singh

A woman stepped forward on her own in a district court on Thursday to say that she will make restitution of $31,078 for the building items her husband had stolen. Her husband, Tan Cheow Lai, 57, who was in the dock, looked relieved. Senior District Judge See Kee Oon had earlier refused his request for restitution to be made in instalments.

Tan will be sentenced on Oct 4 to allow for the couple to hand the money to the investigating officer. Courts usually impose lighter sentences when the offender reimburses the victim for any loss of property.

Tan, a former site supervisor with construction firm PQ Builders, had pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing 940 pieces of stainless steel staircase nosings with a total value of $14,100 in mid and late November 2010. These were kept in the storage container at the worksite at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. Tan was deployed there and had the keys to the container.

The staircase nosings were only missed several months later and investigations led police to him. He was arrested in early March 2011 and it was discovered he was responsible for four other thefts at the worksite.

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