DUO ARRESTED FOR THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLE

The Police have arrested a man and woman, both aged 20, for their suspected involvement in a case of theft of motor vehicle.

On 4 February 2023 at about 5am, the Police received a report of a motorcycle stolen in the vicinity of Woodlands Street 41.

Through follow-up investigations and with the aid of images from Police cameras, officers from Woodlands Police Division established the identity of the duo and arrested them within seven hours of the report. The stolen motorcycle was also recovered. Police investigations are ongoing.

The offence of theft of motor vehicle with common intention under Section 379A read with Section 34 of the Penal Code 1871 carries an imprisonment term of up to seven years and a fine.

The Police would like to advise all motor vehicle owners to adopt the following crime prevention measures:

Park in well-lit areas;

Install an anti-theft alarm system and ensure that it is well-maintained;

Remove cash cards and other valuables, such as laptops and mobile phones before leaving the vehicle; and

Remove the ignition key and lock the vehicle, whenever it is left unattended.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
06 February 2023 @ 2:30 PM

TWO MEN SENTENCED TO 65 MONTHS AND 56 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT FOR ASSISTING A MALAYSIAN TO LAUNDER CRIMINAL PROCEEDS

On 16 November 2022, 65-year-old Ong Leong Lee (“Ong”) and 49-year-old Hay Ching Lin (“Hay”) were convicted on seven counts under Section 44(1)(a) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Offences (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (“CDSA”). These charges were for being concerned in an arrangement to facilitate the retention of Chong Poh Chin’s (“Chong”) benefits from her criminal conduct, while having reasonable grounds to believe that Chong had benefitted from criminal conduct and that the arrangement would facilitate Chong’s retention of her benefits from criminal conduct.

 Hay and Ong were sentenced to 64 months and 56 months imprisonment respectively for offences under Section 44(1)(a) of the CDSA. Hay was sentenced to an additional 1 month imprisonment for offences under Section 48C(1) of the CDSA for failing to declare the cash that he carried from Singapore to Malaysia for Chong, which exceeded the prescribed amount of SGD 20,000 for such declarations.

Investigations revealed that sometime in 2010, Chong, an accounts assistant, devised a scheme to misappropriate monies from her employer, Midpoint Engineering Hardware Pte Ltd (“Midpoint”). She told her friend, Hay, about this scheme and that she needed to transfer monies to a corporate bank account. Chong asked Hay whether he knew anyone who could provide such a bank account.

Hay told Ong about Chong’s scheme and Ong agreed to participate in it. Ong provided the bank account details for his sole proprietorship, Leong Lee Huat Engineering Construction (“LLH”) to Hay, who in turn conveyed them to Chong. Chong filled up numerous cheques issued to LLH and passed the cheques to Midpoint’s director for her signature. From 2011 to 2017, Chong deceived Midpoint’s director into executing 80 fraudulent cheques in favour of LLH for sums totalling more than SGD 2 million.

After the funds from Midpoint were received in LLH’s bank account, the funds were withdrawn in cash, via cheques drafted by Ong. Hay then delivered the cash to Chong’s residence in Malaysia.           

Chong had earlier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment for cheating offences under Section 420 of the Penal Code and money laundering offences under Section 47(1)(c) of the CDSA in July 2021.

Any person who commits an offence under Section 44(1)(a) of the CDSA (now referred to as Section 51 of the CDSA) shall be liable to a fine of up to $500,000 and/or to imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years.

Any person who commits an offence under Section 48C of the CDSA (now referred to as Section 60 of the CDSA) shall be liable to a fine of up to $50,000, imprisonment for a term of up to three years, or both.

The Police take a serious stance against any person involved in the laundering of proceeds of crime, and offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law. To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should reject requests from others to register companies and/or to open bank accounts or receive money in your bank accounts as you may be held accountable, if they are used for criminal activities.

4 workers comprising of 3 electrical technicians and a driver, were deployed to work at a building, where the occupant was moving to another location the following day.

However, they decided to steal electrical cables from the work site, resulting in the 27-year-old driver Murugan Kothalam being electrocuted to death.

The three technicians; 26-year-old Ezhilarasan Nagarajan, 28-year-old Radhakrishnan Elavarasan and 29-year-old Balasubramaniyan Nivas, each pleaded guilty on 6 February to one count of attempted theft.

The former two were fined $1,000 while the latter, who had another charge considered during his sentencing, was fined $1,500.

What happened?

Elavarasan and Nivas both worked for Alltech Systems, and on 15 October 2020 at about 10.30am, were sent to the Police National Service Department building in Still Road.

They were tasked with dismantling the distribution board boxes, hose reel boxes and projector stands from the main and annex buildings.

Elavarasan and Nivas were aware that they were not supposed to cut or remove any cables, and they went to the main building to commence their work without being escorted by the building security.

Nivas noticed that there were a lot of loose electric cables hanging from the ceiling and decided to steal them, telling Elavarsan his plan to sell the cables.

The duo then started pulling and cutting the cables to remove them.

Nagarajan and Kothalam, who were workers of STIE, were told by their supervisor to pass a wrench to the other two men for them to remove the hose reel box.

Nagarajan then met up with Kothalam, who went to the PNSD annex building and found the cables hanging from the ceiling, and they started pulling and cutting the electric cables as the other two men came to check on them.

Nagarajan and Elavarasan then tied the cables up in bundles before going to the main building to remove the hose reel, while the other two continued to remove the electric cables in the annex building.

Nivas later heard a loud crashing sound at about 1pm, and found Kothalam standing on a ladder in one of the rooms; he was not moving and the ladder was shaking.

He suspected that Kothalam had been electrocuted and kicked the ladder away, and Kothalam then fell onto the ground.

He then tried to resuscitate Kothalam after alerting the other two men, and Elavarasan then called the SCDF for help.

Kothalam was then sent to Changi General Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries and died later that day.

A coroner’s inquiry into Kothalam’s death found that he died from electrocution.

Train services along the North South Line broke down earlier this morning (8 February) due to a track point fault between Sembawang and Admiralty.

SMRT’s statement and apology

[UPDATE North-South Line, 8 Feb, at 8.11am]:

On 8 Feb at about 6.45am, a track point fault occurred on the North-South Line between Sembawang and Admiralty MRT stations.

Our engineers have been deployed on site to recover service.

Train services are available, with trains moving at a slower speed between Woodlands and Yishun stations in both directions. Free regular bus and bridging bus services are also available between those stations.

Commuters are advised to add up to 20 minutes’ train travel time and to take alternative routes, such as the Thomson-East Coast Line to get to the city area.

Please follow the official channels for updates.

We are sorry to affect your morning commute.

Updated statement

[UPDATE North-South Line, 8 Feb, at 12.00pm]:

Our staff are working hard to rectify the track point fault.

Commuters are advised to add at least 25 minutes’ train travel time and to take alternative routes, such as the Thomson-East Coast Line, to get to the city area.

We seek your understanding as we are working to recover regular service. Thank you for your patience.

Final update

[UPDATE North-South Line, 8 Feb, at 1.45pm]:

Regular train services have resumed by 12.47pm, and free regular and bridging bus services have ceased.

A track point fault occurred this morning, which required our staff to physically check, troubleshoot and remedy the faulty point machine. A point machine is used to control train movements at rail junctions when trains move from one track to another. It is important that the point machine is fully functional for the safe operations of the train. For safety, once the fault was detected, trains moved at a slow speed of 5kph, resulting in commuters being advised to add 25 minutes’ train travel time.

To rectify the fault, our staff went onto the track to investigate the issue. We also deployed more staff to assist service ambassadors to manage the peak hour crowds at affected stations.

We would like to share that this is unrelated to the North-South Line track fault incident on 6 February.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We apologise to all commuters who experienced longer travelling time today

The Singapore Civil Defence Force will be sending a 20-man team of elite disaster relief personnel to Turkey, responding to Turkey’s request for Humanitarian assistance following a massive earthquake on 6 February that killed 4,850 people (the death toll is still climbing).

SCDF’s statement

[SCDF’s Operation Lionheart Deployment to Türkiye]

In response to the request for humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of a massive earthquake in Türkiye, SCDF will be sending an Operation Lionheart (OLH) contingent to assist in the disaster rescue efforts.

An advance team of 20 SCDF personnel comprising officers from the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), paramedic specialists and a doctor is scheduled to be deployed within the next 24 hours.

SCDF will provide further updates on the deployment once available.

SCDF’s update

[Update 1: SCDF Operation Lionheart Mission to Türkiye]

An advance team of 20 SCDF officers from the Operation Lionheart (OLH) contingent will be departing for Adana, Türkiye at 2:05 a.m. today (8 Feb), to assist in the disaster rescue efforts in the aftermath of the Türkiye-Syria earthquake.

Led by LTC Lok Wee Keong, commander of SCDF’s elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), the advance team comprises 14 DART rescuers, four paramedic specialists and a Full-time National Serviceman (NSF) doctor.

The team was at HQ SCDF yesterday morning to begin their pre-departure briefing and preparation. They are carrying a slew of portable Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) equipment such as cutting/breaking/lifting equipment, life detection devices and fibre-optic scopes, and this will allow the team to be quickly deployed to affected areas for USAR operations.

Yesterday evening, His Excellency Mehmet Burçin Gönenli, Turkish Ambassador to Singapore, visited SCDF Headquarters and met up with the OLH contingent to express his gratitude and appreciation to the team.

Prior to the team’s departure, Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Minister of State (MOS) for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of National Development, and COMR Eric Yap, Commissioner SCDF, were at the airport to send the team off.

We would like to thank Singapore Airlines for facilitating the flight arrangements on short notice.

We wish our OLH contingent a safe and successful mission.

Images source: SCDF Facebook and @omerstappen on Twitter.

A Grab driver in Singapore lamented over how he missed out on a $3 cash incentive by the merest of margins, 4.8cm, which is roughly the size of 3 fingers.

He said that he was deemed ineligible for the Spot Bonus for Far Pickup cash incentive because he didn’t travel more than the 3km required to reach the customer that he was picking up.

He was at Block 122 Bishan Street 12 when he received a booking to pick up a passenger at Block 117 Toa Payoh Lorong 1.

He was told by the Help Centre that he had travelled 2999.9520435848553 metres instead of the 3,000 metres, missing out on the cash incentive by 0.04 metres, or about 4.8cm.

He posted a screenshot of the message that he received from Grab to the Singapore Private Hire Car Drivers and Riders Community group on Facebook, captioning it “walao eh Grab *sad face emoji*”

Netizens’ comments

1. But to be fair, even with rounding up it will be 3 and will not exceed 3km!
2. All distance and fare are calculated based on shortest distance. When you use your GPS, it will take you the fastest time to reach you destination, not the shortest. GREETINGS FROM CRAP.
3. That’s the problem with automation/ai, no human compassion and flexibility
4. Bring this up to Tin Pei Ling ask her to help.
5. They can be so accurate up to 13 decimal place when want claim $ from them. But when want press arrival at pick up even when ur gps is overlap at pick up point, they say u are still far from pick up.