By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 29 March 2011 1408 hrs
SINGAPORE: A recalcitrant offender who brought her
then-10-year-old daughter along to commit burglary was sentenced on
Tuesday to 26 months' jail.
Thirty-one-year-old Ng Bee Hong also had a habit of stealing from
her employers, one of whom became her victim on her first day of
work.
Ng had been fined S$4,000 in January 2008 for theft.
She was later sentenced to 28 months' jail in October, that year,
for offences including housebreaking and criminal breach of
trust.
In this latest case, Ng had her daughter by her side when she broke
into her former workplace, the Nessea Club at Upper Thomson Road,
on October 30, last year.
Ng, who used to be one of its cashiers, arrived there at around
12.30am, after it closed for the day.
The court heard that she used a hammer to break open a wooden door
to the club's main office before asking her daughter to slip on a
pair of gloves that she had brought along with them.
The girl did as she was told and the pair entered the office.
Ng asked her daughter to take a key from a cupboard and used it to
unlock a drawer containing another set of keys.
Ng took these keys and used them to enter the club's jackpot
room.
Once inside, she helped herself to several bowls of coins from a
jackpot machine and also used the keys to unlock a safe in the
room.
Ng managed to steal cash totalling more that S$11,000 from the club
before fleeing the scene with her daughter.
In addition to this, the divorcee, who is currently expecting
another child, had also misappropriated some S$6,000 dollars of the
club's money for her own use, on her first day of work.
Ng, who is also suffering from third-stage kidney cancer, committed
this offence on October 1, last year.
The petite, fair complexioned woman had also stolen more than S$600
in cash just days earlier on September 23 while working as a
cashier at Greenbegger Supermarket at Geylang Road.
Ng, who is unrepresented, pleaded guilty to three of five charges
earlier on March 9, this year.
Before handing out the sentence, Senior District Judge See Kee Oon
said that she had committed serious offences and she did so shortly
after her release from jail.
Ng and her daughter were arrested on November 1, 2010 but no
further action will be taken against the girl.
The youngster is currently staying with her father.
- CNA/fa