Kuah Ah Hok v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Khoo Oon Soo
• Judgment Date: 04 January 2001
• Neutral Citation: [2001] SGDC 2
• Year: 2001
• Published date: 19 April 2005
• Citation: [2001] SGDC 2
• Court: District Court (Singapore)

Magistrate's Appeal No 374 of 2000/01

Kuah Ah Hok ...appellant

v

Public Prosecutor ...respondent

Magistrate's Appeal No 374 of 2000/02

Public Prosecutor ...appellant

v

Kuah Ah Hok ...respondent

Citation:	MA No 374 of 2000/01-02; DAC No 45424 of 2000
Jurisdiction:	Singapore
Date:	2001:01:04
	2000:12:19
Court:	Subordinate Courts
Coram:	Mr Khoo Oon Soo, DJ
Counsel:	Ms Valathammai (APP)
	Accused in person

JUDGMENT:

Grounds of Decision

1 The accused pleaded guilty to this charge on 19 December 2000:

DAC 45424/2000

You,

KUAH AH HOK, M/37 YRS

NRIC No. S 1398514-F

are charged that you on the 18^th day of Oct 2000 at or about 7.00 pm, at back lane of Desker Road, Singapore, did commit theft of the following:-

1. Ten Copper Bend fitting value at $250/-
2. Ten Copper Collar fitting value at $250/-
3. Ten Reducer value at $250/-
4. Ten Copper Pipe value at $600/-

In the possession of one Mr Koh Bak Lee, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 379 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

(vide Exhibit P1A)

2 He was sentenced to imprisonment of 18 months. Both accused and the learned Deputy Public Prosecutor are dissatisfied with this sentence. Consequently, they have filed their respective appeal against the sentence. It would be convenient to deal with both appeals together.

3 The material facts, as detailed in the Statement of Facts (vide Exhibit B), were these:

On 18 October 2000 at about 7.00 pm the owner of motor lorry YK 7631 E had parked his lorry along Desker Road. Some tools were placed at the rear of the lorry. About 7.30 pm the same day the accused was cycling in the vicinity of Desker Road when he spotted these tools. He decided to and proceeded to steal the following tools:

1. Ten copper bend fitting valued at $250/-
2. Ten copper collar fitting valued at $250/-
3. Ten reducer valued at $250/-
4. Ten copper pipe valued at $600/-

The total value of the items came to $1350/-. Unfortunately these were not recovered.

The accused was arrested when the lorry owner telephoned the police the following day at 5.54 pm and informed them that his tools were missing and that the suspect was at the backlane of Desker Road.

4 In assessing sentence I considered the following factors:

1. sentencing framework
2. circumstances of the offence
3. mitigation of the accused
4. previous convictions

5 The sentencing framework is reflected in Section 379 which stipulates a sentence of imprisonment which may extend to 3 years or with fine or with both. I should add that the normal sentence for theft involving such an amount would be in the region of 2 weeks’ imprisonment. The actual sentence would, of course, depend on all the facts and circumstances of each case.

6 Coming...