Public Prosecutor v Mohamad Shariff bin Abdul Jabar

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Lee-Khoo Poh Choo
• Judgment Date: 09 January 2009
• Neutral Citation: [2009] SGDC 8
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Year: 2009
• Citation: [2009] SGDC 8
• Plaintiff Counsel: SSI Abdul Razak
• Defendant Counsel: Accused in person
• Published date: 02 February 2009

9 January 2009

District Judge Lee Poh Choo

The charge and the appeal

1. This Judgement arose from the appeal by the accused against sentence.

Background

2. The accused, aged 33 years old pleaded guilty to a charge under section 379 read with section 34 of the Penal Code, Cap 224, that on or about 4 August 2008, at about 2.41 a.m., at the worksite located along Kaki Bukit Ave 1 infront of Blk 659 Jalan Tenaga, Singapore, together with Ayub Khan s/o Babu Khan (“Ayub Khan”) and in furtherance of the common intention, committed theft of three steel drill casings valued at $330/- each and one metal crowbar valued at $10/- with total value of $1,000/- belonging to Soil Investigation Pte Ltd.

3. Ayub Khan also pleaded guilty to a similar charge in DAC 34802/2008.

The accused and Ayub Khan were dealt with simultaneously on the same day and Prosecution relied on a common Statement of Facts.

Statement of Facts

4. On 4 August 2008, at about 1.44 a.m., one informant named Mr Shabir called the police to report that there were suspicious persons driving a lorry with a ‘Polar’ logo in the vicinity of Blk 633 Jalan Damai. Police officers were despatched to the scene. While conducting foot patrol of the area, they spotted the lorry with the ‘Polar’ logo bearing registration YK 3635U parked beside the worksite of Soil Investigation Pte Ltd along Kaki Bukit Ave 1. The police officers saw the accused and Ayub Khan carrying the steel casings and loading these onto the said lorry. The police officers investigated and found 3 metal casings and a crowbar in the lorry. The accused and Ayub Khan claimed that they picked the metal casings from the grass verge.

5. Tan Seng Hock, Senior Operation Manager of Soil Investigation Pte Ltd confirmed that his company was doing soil testing works at the said worksite along Kaki Bukit Ave 1. The steel casings were used to drill holes in the ground to extract soil for testing. He also confirmed that the three steel casings valued at $330/- each and one steel crow bar valued at $10/- seized by the police, belonged to his company. He had checked the worksite and found these items missing. U Htay Augn who was a geologist and Jasim Uddin Sayedul Hoque who was a general worker, were employees of Soil Investigation Pte Ltd. When they left the worksite in the evening of 2 August 2008, they had arranged the steel casings and crowbar within the worksite which was barricaded with netting. The items were not left by the grass verge or road side. The accused and Ayub Khan did not work for the company and they did not have permission to remove the said items from the worksite.

Both the accused and Ayub Khan admitted to the Statement of Facts without qualification. I therefore convicted them on their respective charge.

Antecedents of the accused

6. (a) 10.4.1990 – theft under section 379 of the Penal Code and was sentenced to 1 year probation.

(b) 31.5.1994 – house breaking and theft by night under section 457 of the Penal Code and theft under section 379
of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to a term in RTC.

(c) 20.3.2008 – criminal breach of trust under section 406 of the Penal Code and sentenced to a fine...