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Woman pleads guilty to selling M16 firing pin
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 06 December 2010 1452 hrs
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SINGAPORE: A 55-year-old shop owner pleaded guilty on Monday to selling a rifle firing pin and having another firing pin in her store.
The rifle firing pin is a weapon component and requires a license for its sale.
Loh Boon Cheng, who owns Lay Hwa Store on the second floor of the Golden Mile Food Centre at Beach Road, admitted that she sold the firing pin for M16 automatic rifle to a media intern on March 5.
The twenty-four-year-old intern went to her shop, located in what is commonly known as the Army Market at around 3pm that day and bought it for S$70.
One of the intern's colleagues then lodged a police report about the incident a week later.
The firing pin was seized and a report from the Logistics Department of the Singapore Police Force stated that it was in a good condition.
On March 18, a team of Police officers as well as personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces Special Investigation Branch raided Loh's shop, where they seized another firing pin from the premises.
Loh told the authorities that she had bought the M16 firing pins from an unknown seller and had intended to re-sell them.
The plump, fair-complexioned woman will be sentenced on Thursday.
For selling the firing pin, Loh can be jailed up to three years and fined S$10,000.
And for having the component without a license, she can be jailed up to three years and fined a maximum of S$5,000.
-CNA/ac