Single father ordered to be jailed, caned, for crime spree, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Single father ordered to be jailed, caned, for crime spree

This article is more than 12 months old

A single father was on Monday (Jan 11) jailed three years, sentenced to six strokes of the cane and fined $30,000 for a series of offences.

Goh Wei Long, 26, who has a four-year-old son, claimed that he committed the offences because of financial difficulties.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to seven charges, including housebreaking and theft by night, possession of a weapon and snatch theft.

Goh was unemployed during the time of the offences, which all happened in end 2014.

Just after midnight on Sept 25, Goh smashed the glass display of a cellphone shop at Pearl's Centre in Chinatown.

He stole five Samsung mobiles phones worth about $1,600 in total and sold them to foreign workers he saw on the streets for half the amount.

Two months later on Nov 28, Goh went to a pawn shop in Bedok North, where he asked to see three gold bracelets and said he was interested in two of them.

When handed the bracelets for examination, Goh dashed out of the shop and fled on a bicycle.

He later sold the gold bracelets at a secondhand shop in Golden Landmark Shopping Centre for about $7,000.

The following month, on Dec 14, Goh was cycling around New Upper Changi Road in the evening looking for victims to rob.

He spotted Ms Wang Ting Ting, 27, at about 8.20pm.

Goh cycled past Ms Wang and snatched her mobile phone, which he later gave to his friend as repayment for a debt.

He repeated the offence three days later on Dec 17 at about 9.30pm.

This time, he struck in Bedok South Avenue 1, grabbing an iPhone 6 Plus and gold ring from Madam Hii Wan Ching, 33.

While her phone was recovered, she never got her ring back.

On Dec 19, 2014 at about 1.30am, police officers conducting an operations exercise in Victoria Street searched Goh and found a knuckle duster on him. 

As he had bloodshot eyes and had slurred speech, police took him into custody at the Central Narcotics Bureau.

There, a urine test revealed traces of methamphetamine. Goh admitted to smoking ice, the street name of methamphetamine.

Goh also admitted to allowing an unlicensed moneylender to use his bank account and ATM card for illegal moneylending activities.

In mitigation, Goh's lawyer S.S. Dhillon said his client was in financial difficulty and committed the offences to pay for his expenses.

He has a four-year-old son, whom his mother is looking after.

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