by Elena Chong
TWO teens broke into a wines and spirits distributor and got
away with eight bottles of vintage wine worth $164,058 while their
accomplice acted as a look-out, a court heard.
Leonard Lim Wei Jye, 18, pleaded guilty to housebreaking and
theft of the wines with Lai Kwok Fong and Nicklaus Yeo Jun Howe,
both 17, at Cornerstone Building in Lorong 17 Geylang on July 30
2010.
Lai, who had previously worked at CornerStone Wines, is now
undergoing 24 months' probation for theft of wines from the
company.
A Community Court heard that the trio met at about 8pm that day
and proceeded to Hock Tong Bee in Geylang to steal wines from the
company.
Lim and Lai climbed over the rear fence into the company while
Yeo waited at the back. Lai keyed in the access pin code and
entered a room where the expensive wines were kept. Both stole the
eight bottles which were sold by Lai for $8,000. He gave $2,000 to
Lim and $1,000 to Yeo. All the eight bottles had been
recovered.
Yeo was not charged but given a conditional warning by the
police. The court called for a probation report on Lim on April
28.
