Public Prosecutor v Mohamed Ridzuan Bin Suboh

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: May Lucia Mesenas
• Judgment Date: 06 August 2008
• Neutral Citation: [2008] SGDC 231
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Published date: 14 August 2008
• Year: 2008
• Plaintiff Counsel: Senior Station Inspector Wee Kim Cheok
• Defendant Counsel: Appellant in person
• Citation: [2008] SGDC 231

6 August 2008

District Judge May Lucia Mesenas:

1 The accused pleaded guilty to four charges of having the common intention to commit theft of motorcycles with two other accused persons, namely, Sabri Bin Suboh and Rayme Bin Sulaiman, which offence is punishable under section 379A read with Section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224. Thirty other similar charges under section 379A read with Section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224, were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing (see Exhibit “P1”).

2 The proceeded charges state as follows:

Exhibit “C1” (DAC 7419/2008):

You, Mohamed Ridzuan Bin Suboh, male/27 years, NRIC S8016685J, are charged that you, between 16 October 2006 at 12pm to 17 October 2006 at 6.30am at the multi-storey car-park at Blk 54 Cassia Crescent located at deck 1, Singapore, together with Sabri Bin Suboh and Rayme Bin Sulaiman, and in furtherance of the common intention of you all, did commit theft of a Yamaha R6 red colour motorcycle registration number FBA 5611A valued at $25,000 in possession of one, Lim Ah Kim, and you have thereby committed and offence punishable under section 379A read with section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224.

Exhibit “C2” (DAC 7420/2008):

You, Mohamed Ridzuan Bin Suboh, male/27 years, NRIC S8016685J, are charged that you, between 13 November 2006 at 2pm to 15 November 2006 at about 7.50pm at the multi-storey car-park of Blk 159A Rivervale Crescent located at the 2^nd deck, together with Sabri Bin Suboh and Rayme Bin Sulaiman, and in furtherance of the common intention of you all, did commit theft of a Yamaha R1 grey colour motorcycle registration number FV 5673M valued at $13,000 in possession of one, Lim Trevor, and you have thereby committed and offence punishable under section 379A read with section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224.

Exhibit “C3” (DAC 7421/2008):

You, Mohamed Ridzuan Bin Suboh, male/27 years, NRIC S8016685J, are charged that you, between 8 November 2006 at 12pm to 9 November 2006 at 2.00am at the multi-storey car-park of Blk 307A Tampines St 32 located at deck 2, together with Sabri Bin Suboh and Rayme Bin Sulaiman, and in furtherance of the common intention of you all, did commit theft of a Suzuki K5 blue colour motorcycle registration number FZ 6909G valued at $16,100 in possession of one, Song Jian Wei, and you have thereby committed and offence punishable under section 379A read with section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224.

Exhibit “C4” (DAC 7422/2008):

You, Mohamed Ridzuan Bin Suboh, male/27 years, NRIC S8016685J, are charged that you, between 14 November 2006 at 10.20pm to 15 November 2006 at 7.30am at the multi-storey car-park of Blk 496A Tampines Ave 9 at deck 1, together with Sabri Bin Suboh and Rayme Bin Sulaiman, and in furtherance of the common intention of you all, did commit theft of a Suzuki K6 yellow colour motorcycle registration number FY 8247A valued at $22,000 in possession of one, Muhammad Ridzuan Bin Rosli, and you have thereby committed and offence punishable under section 379A read with section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224.

Summary of Facts

3 The accused admitted to the Statement of Facts (Exhibit ‘PS1’) pertaining to the four charges, without qualification. He was therefore convicted on the four charges accordingly. The salient points in respect of the proceeded charges are as follows:

(a) The accused together with the other two co-accused persons, Ryame Bin Sulaiman (B2) and Sabri Bin Suboh (B3) went to four different multi-storey car-parks located in four different HDB estates (namely, Blk 54 Cassia Crescent, Blk 159A Riverdale Crescent, Blk 307A Tampines St 32 and Blk 469A Tampines Ave 9) respectively to steal the motorcycles in question on four separate occasions.

(b) The modus operandi was the same for the four occasions, in that the accused as well as B3 would be looking for motorcycles in the said locations to steal. On each occasion, once the motorcycle is identified, both the accused and B2 would load the stolen motorcycle onto a rented van whilst B3 would be positioned at the void-deck facing the entrance of each of the multi-storey car-parks, as a look-out.

(c) The accused would thereafter make the necessary arrangements of ordering the crates for the stolen motorcycles which would be exported overseas subsequently. B3 rented the van which was used to facilitate the conveyance of the motorcycles once they are stolen from the said multi-storey car-parks.

(d) All the offences in the proceeded charges were committed on various dates between 16 October 2006 and 15 November 2006.

(e) The total value of the four stolen motorcycles amounted to $76,100. None of the four motorcycles were recovered.

Antecedents and Mitigation

4 The accused has previous convictions for drug related offences for which he was sentenced as follows (see Exhibit “P2”):

a) 2 February 2001 – Drug consumption (section 8(b) Misuse of Drugs Act Cap 185) – sentenced to 15 months imprisonment;

b) 1 April 2003 - Drug consumption (section 8(b) Misuse of Drugs Act Cap 185) – sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment;

c) 1 April 2003 – 3 counts of failing to report for urine test (Regulation 15(3)(f) Misuse of Drugs (Approved Institutions and Treatment and Rehabilitation) Regulations) – sentenced to 2 months’ imprisonment per charge.

5 The accused was also placed on drug supervision for 24 months on 30 November 2001 and 13 July 2005 respectively.

6 The accused, who was unrepresented, said that he was remorseful and pleaded for leniency.

Prosecution’s Submissions

7 The prosecution highlighted that the offences committed by the accused persons concerned a theft syndicate where the stolen motorcycles were dismantled and transported to Indonesia. Further, the prosecuting officer informed the court that the accused did not voluntarily surrender himself but instead, it was due to the vigilance of the police officers who spotted the accused. The co-accused persons, Ryame Bin Sulaiman (B2) and Sabri Bin Suboh (B3) have been dealt with for similar charges and were sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment and 1 year imprisonment respectively for each charge under section 379A read with section 34 of the Penal Code Cap 224. The offences that they have pleaded guilty to are reflected in their respective schedule of offences as tendered by the prosecution (see Exhibits “P3” and “P4” respectively).

Sentence

Sentencing Considerations

8 The punishment prescribed for an offence committed under section 379A of the Penal Code Cap 224 prior to 1 February 2008 (which is the present case) is an imprisonment term of at least 1 year and a maximum term of up to 7 years. Further, the accused, shall be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence under the Road Traffic Act, for a period of not less than 3 years from the date of his release from imprisonment.

9 Given that the minimum mandatory imprisonment is at least 1 year for each charge, the sentence would be pushed up where multiple thefts are involved; where the vehicle is high in value; where there is a prior record (especially for property offences); where the vehicle is stolen for use in the commission of an offence; where it is stolen for sale of its parts; and where the offence(s) is sophisticated and well-organised: see Sentencing Practice in the Subordinate Courts (2^nd edition) at page 356.

10 I am also mindful of the fact that an offence committed by two or more persons may be regarded as an aggravating factor (see Sentencing Practice at page 84 and cited with approval in the case PP v Law Aik Meng [2007] 2 SLR 814) in which case, general deterrence...