Ang Soon Wah v Public Prosecutor

• Judge: Kaur Jasvender
• Judgment Date: 05 February 2001
• Neutral Citation: [2001] SGDC 37
• Citation: [2001] SGDC 37
• Published date: 19 April 2005
• Court: District Court (Singapore)

Ang Soon Wah ...appellant

v

Public Prosecutor ...respondent

Citation:	MA No 32 of 2001
Jurisdiction:	Singapore
Date:	2001:02:05
	2001:01:30, 2001:01:26, 2001:01:05
Court:	Subordinate Courts
Coram:	Jasvender Kaur, District Judge
Counsel:	Tan Kim Chiang (Angela Wong & Co.) and Siow Itming (Siow Itming & Co) for the appellant
	Inspectors Lopez Hilarion, Masilamani and James Ng (Prosecuting Officers) for the respondent

JUDGMENT:

Grounds of Decision

On 5 January 2001, the accused pleaded guilty to the following charge:

are charged that you, on the 6th day of September 2000, at or about 11.00 a.m., at Shop N Save Supermarket located at Boon Lay Shopping Centre, Block 221 Boon Lay Place #02-164, Singapore, a place used for custody of property, did commit theft of the following items:-

a. Two cans of Hosen longan fruits valued at $1.90 each;

b. Two cans of Flying Horse lychees fruits valued at $2.20 each;

c. Two cans of Choice 1 lychees fruits valued at $1.70 each;

d. Two cans of Flying Horse longan fruits valued at $2.20 each;

e. Two cans of Ma Ling pork luncheon meat valued at $1.05 each

with a total value of $18.10¢ in the possession of the marketing executive Foo Yok Hin of the said Shop N Save Supermarket and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 380 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

2. A preventive detention report was called for, and the offender was found both physically and mentally suited for a sentence of preventive detention. On 30 January 2001, he was sentenced to the maximum term of 20 years’ preventive detention. He appeals against that sentence.

The facts

3. On 6 September 2000, at the Shop N Save Supermarket, the offender was seen placing canned fruits into a red plastic bag by an employee of the shop. He was then observed going to the fruits section, and selected five oranges. Thereafter, he proceeded to the cashiers counter and paid for the oranges. After he stepped out of the store, the employee who had observed him earlier stopped him. She checked the red plastic bag which he had, and found 10 cans of fruits with a total value of $18.10¢ which had not been paid for. The offender was detained, and the police notified.

Antecedents

4. The offender has a long list of antecedents, which began about 34 years ago in 1967. In that year, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for an offence of theft under s 379 of the Penal Code. In 1969, for an offence of theft again, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. He then went on to commit armed robbery (ss 392 read with s 397 Penal Code) in 1972, and received three years’ imprisonment. In 1974, he was convicted for committing robbery with hurt (s 394 Penal Code) and consented to two robbery charges under s 392 being taken into consideration. He received six years’ imprisonment with 8 strokes. In 1979, he committed extortion (s 385 Penal Code) and was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and six strokes. In 1982, he was convicted of one count of robbery with hurt (s 394 Penal Code), one count of housebreaking by night (s 457 read with s 34 Penal Code) and one count of housebreaking by day (s 454 read with s 34 Penal Code), with three charges of housebreaking and one charge of theft taken into consideration. He was sentenced to 5 years’ corrective training (erroneously stated as preventive detention in the antecedent report) and 8 strokes of the cane. In June 1987, for an offence of housebreaking by night (s...