Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Ismail Bin Hamid

JudgeRoy Grenville Neighbour
Judgment Date04 July 2008
Neutral Citation[2008] SGDC 176
Citation[2008] SGDC 176
Published date08 July 2008
CourtDistrict Court (Singapore)
Plaintiff CounselMarian Lee, Assistant Public Prosecutor,Mustaffa Bin Abu Bakar, Mustaffa & Co, counsel

4 July 2008

District Judge Roy Grenville Neighbour:

1. The appellant pleaded guilty to the following charge, namely:-

DAC No 23264/2008 [Exhibit C1]

You,

Muhammad Ismail Bin Hamid, Male /19 years old

NRIC No: S 8831723H

DOB: 23.08.1988

are charged that you on 22nd day of September 2007, at about 8.15pm, at Cold Storage, located at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, Singapore, a place used for custody of property, together with Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor, Rizwan Bin Rumli and Mohamed Darul Hakim Bin Mohamed Ali, in furtherance of the common intention of you both, did commit theft of the following:

a. One 1st Choice mineral water value at $0.40

b. Three bottles of ‘Grey Goose’ Vodka value at $112.15 each

with a total value amounting to $336.85, in the possession of the duty manager, Enrico Purnama Bakti and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 380 read with Section 34 Penal Code, Chapter 224.

2. At the conclusion of the hearing the appellant was convicted and sentenced to reformative training. Dissatisfied, the appellant has appealed against the sentence. The appellant is currently on bail pending appeal.

Facts

3. The facts to which the appellant pleaded guilty to are that on 22 September 2007 at about 8.51pm, Cold Storage’s Department Manager at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, one Anrico Purna Bhakti called the police and informed them that four male persons were behaving suspiciously in the supermarket. Consequently police officers from Orchard Neighbourhood Police Centre proceeded to the said supermarket. There the police officers detained the appellant and one Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor, aged 23 years.

4. Investigations revealed that on 22 September 2007 at about 8.15pm, at Takashimaya Cold Storage Supermarket, Sales Assistant Mohd Azizul Bin Mahedin saw the appellant together with Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor, Rizwan Bin Rumli and Mohamed Darul Hakim Bin Mohamed Ali loitering around the supermarket’s liquor section. At this juncture, Sales assistant Mohd Azizul saw the appellant uncapping a bottle of mineral water and consuming it. Whilst the appellant was browsing through some liquour bottles on the shelf, Rizwan Bin Rumli and Mohamed Darul Hakim Bin Mohamed Ali were seen crowding around the appellant while Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor stood at one corner of the supermarket and acted as a lookout.

5. Mohd Azizul then saw the appellant putting three bottles of vodka into his sling bag. At this juncture, Mohd Azizul went to the office to notify Department Manager Anrico Bhakti of what he had seen. Shortly, Mohd Azizul came out of the office. He saw the appellant outside the supermarket with an unknown male person. Mohd Azizul immediately detained the appellant.

6. When Mohd Azizul asked the appellant to hand over the sling bag to be searched, the appellant refused. The appellant then tried to flee from the scene but was detained by the police. Shortly thereafter, Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor was detained.

7. At the scene, the appellant was found to be in possession of 3 bottles of vodka each valued at $112.15. The empty mineral water bottle valued at $0.40 was found on a shelf in the supermarket. The total value of all the items amounted to $336.85. All the items were identified by duty Department Manager Anrico Bhakti to be property belonging to Cold Storage supermarket and that they were not paid for by the appellant.

8. The appellant, upon being questioned admitted to having the common intention to steal the said items with Muhamed Rizal Bin Noor, Rizwan Bin Rumli and Mohamed Darul Hakim Bin Mohamed Ali who were all acting as look outs when the appellant stole the said items.

Antecedents

9. The appellant is not a first offender. He is a repeat offender. On 24 June 2005, the appellant was convicted on 3 counts of theft under section 379 of the Penal Code and was sentenced to 18 months probation with a time restriction to remain at home from 10.00 pm to 6.00 am daily and to serve 80 hours of community service.

Mitigation

10. In mitigation the appellant, who was then not represented by counsel when he pleaded guilty to the charge, stated that he was regretted committing the offence and was remorseful. He stated that he is a third year student studying at Republic Polytechnic and wished to complete his studies. In committing the offence the appellant claimed that he and the co-accused persons wanted to enjoy themselves but had little money to do so.

Sentence

11. I considered all the facts and circumstances of the case in determining an appropriate sentence. I also considered the sentencing principles. The appellant had no doubt committed a serious offence of theft in dwelling with three others in contravention of section 380 read with section 34 of the Penal Code. The maximum prescribed punishment for the said offence is a term of 7 years imprisonment. After considering the appellant’s plea in mitigation and the fact that the appellant is a young offender, I was of the view that rehabilitation for the appellant was still a primary consideration rather than incarceration. Despite the fact that the appellant had antecedents for theft and was previously placed on probation, nevertheless, I exercised my discretion to call for pre-sentence reports on the appellant to determine suitability for probation and fitness for reformative training. The prosecution had no objection to reports being called to determine suitability for probation and fitness for reformative training.

12. The appellant was then remanded three weeks pending the preparation of reformative training and probation reports. Consequently, both pre-sentence reports were submitted to court. The appellant was found to be fit to undergo reformative training. He was not recommended to be...

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