Sat, Mar 03, 2012
AsiaOne
SINGAPORE - A maid was fined $2,600 on Friday for stealing a
handbag and other items from five shops at Nex mall at Serangoon
central, a day before she was to return to India to get
married.
The Straits Times reported that her former employer paid the
fine for her, explaining that she was a "good person who
did something foolish, and I wanted to help her to move on in her
life".
The incidents occurred on Nov 14 last year. At about 4.15 pm, an
Isetan store employee saw Sandeep Kaur, 32, carrying a handbag
worth $49.90 out of the store without paying for it.
She was stopped outside the store, where the other items,
including a sweater and costume jewellery, were found
on her.
When arrested, Kaur admitted to stealing the items, which
amounted to $255.
Her former employer, a businessman, bailed her out and
allowed her to stay at his home. Kaur, an Indian
national, had been due to return to her home country for
good and her work permit had been cancelled.
The court heard on Friday that Kaur had never shopped
alone, after working in Singapore for seven years.
Her lawyer, Mr S.S. Dhillon, added that the incident has
also embarrassed her family in Punjab, as the marriage had to be
postponed at the last minute.
Mr Dhillon asked the judge to impose a nominal fine as she is a
first-time offender and the value of the stolen items were not
high.
District Judge Low Wee Ping said he could not understand why she
committed the offences on her last day here, but noted that she had
been working dilligently for the past seven years.
According to her former employer, Kaur would be returning
to India today.
The maximum penalty for theft is a three-year jail term and a
$10,000 fine.
Mon, Jul 25, 2011
The New Paper
HE FOUND his patient to be a bright and promising young
woman.
So when she was put on probation for shoplifting, Dr Tan Chue Tin,
61, gave her a job - to keep an eye on her and to help her stay out
of trouble.
Dr Tan, who was her psychiatrist, even had one of his nurses
accompany her on her trips from the MRT station near her home to
his clinic at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. That was in
2005.
Sadly, his patient Goh Lee Yin, 30, who is unemployed, re-offended.
In December last year and in February, she stole a Chanel bag, a
Gucci dress and an Emporio Armani sweater.
While out on bail last month, she nicked items such as women's
magazines, plastic containers, shower cream, canned fruit and jelly
powder.
Yesterday, she was jailed six weeks and fined $4,000 for three
charges of theft in dwelling after pleading guilty in May. Another
similar charge was taken into consideration during
sentencing.
The sentences were backdated to her remand date of June 25.
This is the same woman who had twice escaped a jail term on
appeal.
In 2005, she made legal history when then Chief Justice Yong Pung
How set aside her 21/2-month jail term and placed her on probation
for two years.
But she stole again - filching luxury handbags this time - while on
probation in 2006.
Justice V.K. Rajah's judgment for her appeal the next year was
another legal landmark. The prosecution had appealed for a longer
jail term than the one day's jail and $8,000 fine ordered by the
district court.
But Justice Rajah disagreed and placed her on 18 months' probation
instead.
Yesterday, Dr Tan told The New Paper over the phone that Goh was
"actually a wonderful person" whom he felt deserved a second
chance.
"If you know her well, you'll find that she's a kind, gentle person
who cares for people," he said.
Poor self-esteem
She sought him out after she was arrested for stealing, then let
off with a conditional warning in 2004. The year before, she was
also caught and given a conditional warning by the police.
Dr Tan had diagnosed her as suffering from kleptomania, an impulse
control disorder.
Goh had suffered from poor self-esteem since young and often had
suicidal thoughts. She did well at school, scoring a PSLE aggregate
of 257.
She attended CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School, Anglo-Chinese Junior
College and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
But she had difficulty getting along with her peers and
teachers.
She also had a strained relationship with her mother, a former
cleaner in her late 60s who had worked to put Goh and her elder
sister through university. Her sailor-father, who was often away,
died when she was 17.
For a few months in 2005, Goh worked part-time at Dr Tan's clinic,
earning $10 an hour, until she found a new job.
"I didn't need an extra person working for me, but I could see that
she was an intelligent young lady with good potential. So we
created a job for her, to do computer work since she's good at it,
to help her build up her self-esteem," he said.
Before her stint at his clinic, Goh, who graduated with honours in
computer engineering from NTU in 2004, was a software programmer
with Singapore Airlines.
Help from others
Dr Tan is not the only person who has helped Goh.
CJ Yong had put her on probation as he felt jail would only worsen
her condition. Her case was considered unusual because in three
previous cases of theft by kleptomaniacs, all had been
jailed.
He said that it was easy for him to "bump" her into jail, but felt
that she had a problem which "cannot be resolved by this form of
punishment".
Justice Rajah had also viewed that a jail term was not the best
solution for Goh.
"I am persuaded that (Goh's) rehabilitation for the present will be
best continued outside of the prison walls," he had said
then.
He credited her for trying to overcome her condition and stay clean
for a year. Her relapse was "an unfortunate blip" in her otherwise
successful treatment programme, he said.
Goh's sister, then an engineer,, and her mother had also rallied
around her.
After she was hauled to court in 2005, they drew up a supervision
plan: There was a daily timetable she had to follow and a guarantee
that there would always be someone around to ensure she took her
medication and to help her resist the urge to steal.
Walking with her
This included her sister walking her from their home to the MRT
station at 8am every day before being met by Dr Tan's nurse.
After work, her then-boyfriend's father, a doctor whose clinic was
also at Mount Elizabeth, would take her home. On Sundays, she would
shuttle between church and home.
Her loved ones were again key figures in 2007. Negative comments at
her temporary job as a conference coordinator at Mount Elizabeth
had depressed her and triggered her stealing spree, leading to the
shoplifting charges.
Her family, then-boyfriend and his doctor parents crafted another
24-hour supervision plan to minimise chances of a relapse.
It was this "army of caregivers", as described by the prosecution
in 2007, that formed an exceptional support network for Goh. Yet
their hopes for her were dashed by her stealing spree last
year.
In her mitigation, Goh's lawyer, Mr Choo Si Sen, said she had lost
her job after she was charged in March.
For theft in dwelling, she could have been jailed seven years and
fined on each charge.
Shoplifting history
April 27, 2005: Stole an $83 skirt from a Ngee Ann City
boutique.
May 12, 2005: Stole an $80 haversack, 167 hangers, two bottles of
wine, two bottles of lotion, one towel, two bottles of wine cooler,
worth about $233, from two stores in Bishan.
May 16, 2005: Stole 18 boxes of shaving cartridges, one razor,
eight packets of insoles, one skin file and two boxes of dental
floss worth some $306 from a Thomson Road supermarket.
Stole body shaving system valued at $90 from a department store in
Orchard Road.
Stole four bottles of sun care lotion, each valued at $45, from a
department store at Paragon shopping centre.
August 2005: Jailed 21/2 months by district court. Appealed against
sentence.
Oct 15, 2005: Stole four pairs of earrings valued at $70 in total
from a department store at Wisma Atria.
November 2005: On appeal, jail term set aside by then Chief Justice
Yong Pung How. Two years' probation, with stringent conditions, was
ordered.
Nov 20, 2006: Stole $375 wristlet clutch bag from Coach boutique at
Raffles City Shopping Centre.
Stole Louis Vuitton denim handbag valued at $1,960 from LV boutique
at Raffles Hotel.
When caught, she was also found with a $143 blouse, a $39 handbag
and a $56 handbag, for which she was charged with fraudulent
possession.
May 2007: Fined $8,000 and jailed one day by district court.
Prosecution appeals.
Nov 29, 2007: Appeal dismissed. Further 18 months probation ordered
for breaching the original probation order.
February and December 2010: Stole a $4,790 Chanel bag, $3,200 Gucci
dress and $610 Emporio Armani sweater.
May this year: Pleaded guilty to two shoplifting charges, with one
similar charge taken into consideration. June 25
Charged with stealing items such as women's magazines, shower
cream, canned fruit and jelly powder - totalling $83 - while out on
bail.
July 22: Jailed six weeks and fined $4,000 by district court.
Wow! thanks for the info!