Ng Kum Kit v Public Prosecutor

• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Judge: Abdul Rahim B A Jalil
• Judgment Date: 08 February 2001
• Neutral Citation: [2001] SGDC 41
• Citation: [2001] SGDC 41
• Published date: 19 April 2005

Ng Kum Kit ...appellant

v

Public Prosecutor ...respondent

Citation:	DAC No 27425-9 of 2000
Jurisdiction:	Singapore
Date:	2001:02:08
	2001:01:15, 2001:01:13, 2001:01:02 - 2001:01:05, 2000:11:29 2000:11:28, 2000:10:16
Court:	Subordinate Courts
Coram:	Abdul Rahim Jalil, District Judge
Counsel:	Peter Ong Lip Cheng (Thomas Loh Partnership) for the appellant
	Leong Kwang Ian (Deputy Public Prosecutor) for the prosecution

JUDGMENT:

Grounds of Judgment

The accused, Ng Kum Kit was convicted after trial of the following charges:

DAC 27425/2000

You, Ng Kum Kit, m/44 yrs. NRIC No. S 0148344 G, are charged that you, on or about the 21^st day of April 1999, at M/s Addilex Communications, 149 Rochor Road #02-27, Fu Lu Shou Complex, Singapore, did dishonestly receive a stolen property to wit, a ‘Ericsson 388’ handphone valued at about S$280/- belonging to one Sim Chun Xiong, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be a stolen property, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 411 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

DAC 27426/2000

You, Ng Kum Kit, m/44 yrs. NRIC No. S 0148344 G, are charged that you, on or about the 24^st day of April 1999, at M/s Addilex Communications, 149 Rochor Road #02-27, Fu Lu Shou Complex, Singapore, did dishonestly receive a stolen property to wit, a ‘Nokia 6110’ handphone valued at about S$500/- belonging to one Wong Hsien Hong, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be a stolen property, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 411 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

DAC 27427/2000

You, Ng Kum Kit, m/44 yrs. NRIC No. S 0148344 G, are charged that you, on or about the 26^st day of April 1999, at M/s Addilex Communications, 149 Rochor Road #02-27, Fu Lu Shou Complex, Singapore, did dishonestly receive a stolen property to wit, a ‘Philip’ handphone valued at about S$550/- belonging to one Loh Chuan Yun, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be a stolen property, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 411 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

DAC 27428/2000

You, Ng Kum Kit, m/44 yrs. NRIC No. S 0148344 G, are charged that you, on or about the 28^th day of April 1999, at M/s Addilex Communications, 149 Rochor Road #02-27, Fu Lu Shou Complex, Singapore, did dishonestly receive a stolen property to wit, a ‘Startac’ handphone valued at about S$535/- belonging to one Chan Di Zhao, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be a stolen property, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 411 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

DAC 27429/2000

You, Ng Kum Kit, m/44 yrs. NRIC No. S 0148344 G, are charged that you, on or about the 30^th day of April 1999, at M/s Addilex Communications, 149 Rochor Road #02-27, Fu Lu Shou Complex, Singapore, did dishonestly receive a stolen property to wit, a ‘Ericsson 337’ handphone valued at about S$300/- belonging to one Chia Yong Peng, knowing or having reason to believe the same to be a stolen property, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 411 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

Evidence adduced by the prosecution

2. Ting Wilson was the main prosecution witness. He testified that he had stolen hand-phones. His modus operandi was that he would approach his victims, accuse them of assaulting his younger brother and then borrow their hand-phones on the pretext of calling his brother. He would then ask them to wait and then he walked away with the hand-phones.

3. Ting Wilson also said that he had sold the stolen hand-phones to the accused. He testified that he started selling stolen hand-phones to the accused sometime in late March 1999. According to him, he had sold some 15 to 20 hand-phones to the accused.

DAC 27425/2000

4. Sim Chun Xiong was a student. In respect of the charge in DAC 24725/2000, he testified that on 21 April 99, Ting Wilson took away his black Ericsson 388 hand-phone. Ting Wilson approached him and asked him to follow him to a fountain at Takashimaya Shopping Centre. Ting Wilson claimed that someone had beaten his brother. Ting Wilson also told Sim his brother saw him and his brother said that he looked like the culprit. He then borrowed Sim’s hand-phone. According to Sim, Ting Wilson wanted to call his brother to confirm if he was the person who had beaten his brother. Ting Wilson then walked away with the hand-phone to the linkway between Wisma Atria and Takashimaya Shopping Centre. Sim tried to follow Ting Wilson but lost track of him. Sim estimated the value of the hand-phone to be around $280.

5. Ting Wilson confirmed that on that day, i.e. 21 April 1999, he misappropriated an Ericcson 388 hand-phone belonging to Sim Chun Xiong. He then called the accused to negotiate the price of the hand-phone. Having negotiated the price, he walked to the accused’s shop at Fu Lu Shou Complex. Upon reaching the accused’s shop, he gave the phone to the accused, collected his money and left. He could not remember the price he was paid as he had sold the accused many Ericsson 388 hand-phones.

DAC 2726/2000

6. As for the charge in DAC 2726/2000, Wong Hsien Hong who was also a student testified that on 24 April 99, he was at Takashimaya Shopping Centre with a friend. A man came to him and claimed that his friend had beaten up his brother the previous week. The man then asked for a hand-phone. Wong offered to lend the man his hand-phone. The man then told Wong to sit down as the matter did not concern him and went away with his friend. When his friend did not return after five minutes, Wong went to look for him. He found his friend outside a shop. The friend told him that while he bent down to retrieve his keys which he had dropped. The man went off with Wong’s hand-phone. Wong could not identify the man who took his hand-phone. He said his mother had bought the hand-phone at the price of $500.

7. Ting Wilson gave evidence that the hand-phone that he took from Wong Hsien Hong on that day was a Nokia 6110. After he had taken the hand-phone, he made a call to the accused using the stolen hand-phone. He proceeded to the accused’s shop with a friend called Rosli. When he was at the accused’s shop, he handed the hand-phone to the accused and collected the money. He could also not remember how much he was paid for the hand-phone.

DAC 2727/2000

8. On DAC 2727/2000, Loh Chuan Yun, another student, testified that on 26 April 99, at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station, his blue Philip hand-phone valued at $580 was taken way by a man. He identified Ting Wilson to be this...