After losing all his money at the casino, the PRC man had an idea to steal laptops and mobile phones from students at universities and polytechnic campuses. On 9 occasions, he went in various schools to steal and 11 students became a victim of his crime. In totality, The stolen devices worth almost $20,000.
The 40-year-old defendant, Li Qichong, pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges of theft and the remaining six charges of theft were also taken into consideration by the judge for the sentencing, he was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment.
The defendant is a self-employed businessman and also a serial gambler, he often flies from China to Singapore to play at Marina Bay Sands Casino. However, luck was not on his side and he eventually lost all the money and started stealing to recover his losses.
The defendant has heard in China that Singaporeans like to leave mobile phones and computers in campus unattended, so every time he loses money through gambling, he would go to polytechnics and university campuses to steal students’ mobile phones and laptops.
In one of these cases, which occurred on October 9, 2018, the defendant went to the NUS campus at 2 pm and found a laptop on a table and he ran off with it.
The case revealed that the female student had left her laptop that was worth S$3,000 on the desk because she had lunch with her classmates.
Court documents revealed that the crimes occurred between October 9, 2018, and June 19 2019. The defendant would sell the devices in China after stealing,
The lawyer pleaded for the defendant, saying that the defendant’s mother died on 14 September 2019 and he had lost her only relative in the world. The defendant was heartbroken. The defendant was a first offender and he regretted it. But it seems like it has nothing to do with what he had done in 2018
The prosecution alleges that the defendants had a premeditated case and specifically targeting students, which not only caused them to lose money but also caused them to feel anxious and stressed because of the school work that was stolen along with the computers.