Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Ridzuan Bin Mohammad Yusof

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Toh Han Li
• Judgment Date: 08 August 2022
• Neutral Citation: [2022] SGDC 177
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: DAC-900974-2018 & Ors, Magistrate’s Appeal No 9085-2022-01
• Published date: 17 August 2022
• Year: 2022
• Hearing Date: 26 October 2020,27 October 2020,19 October 2020,20 October 2020,21 October 2020,01 September 2020,02 September 2020,31 August 2020,16 March 2020,17 March 2020,23 March 2020,24 February 2020,07 December 2021,21 July 2021,22 July 2021,23 July 2021,05 April 2021,07 January 2021,12 January 2021,24 December 2021,05 May 2022,22 April 2022
• Plaintiff Counsel: DPP Dwayne Lum and DPP Kwang Jia Min (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Mr Suang Wijaya (Eugene Thuraisingam LLP)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Offences,Gang Robbery,Housebreaking by night,Rioting,Hurt,Use of abusive words,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Sentencing
• Citation: [2022] SGDC 177

Principal District Judge Toh Han Li: Introduction

Muhammad Ridzuan bin Mohammad Yusoff (“Ridzuan”) and Thava Kumaran s/o Ramamutty (“Thava”) were jointly tried on a charge of gang robbery of cash amounting to $300,000 under s 391 and punishable under s 395 Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“the gang robbery charge”) and a charge of housebreaking by night with common intention under s 456 read with s 34 Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“the housebreaking by night charge”). The charges against Ridzuan were as follows:

DAC 900974-2018

You…are charged that you, on the 11th day of December 2017, at or about 3am, at 93A Rowell Road, Singapore, together with one Shanker Maghalingam, one Juraimi Bin Jupri, one Nor Mohamad Azril Bin Sajali and one Thava Kumaran S/O Ramamutty, did conjointly commit gang-robbery of cash amounting to S$300,000 in the possession of one Sikder Sujan, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 391 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed), punishable under Section 395 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

DAC 931561-2018

You…are charged that you, on [sic] the 11th day of December 2017, at or about 3am, at 93A Rowell Road, Singapore, together with one Shanker Maghalingam, one Juraimi Bin Jupri, one Nor Mohamad Azril Bin Sajali and one Thava Kumaran S/O Ramamutty, and in furtherance to the common intention of you all, did commit house-breaking by night, to wit, by the said Thava Kumaran S/O Ramamutty opening the locked door of the unit, in order to allow you and the said Juraimi Bin Jupri, Nor Mohamad Azril Bin Sajali and Thava Kumaran S/O Ramamutty to gain entry into the said unit in the possession of one Sikder Sujan, a building used as a human dwelling, at a time between 7pm and 7am, in order to commit an offence of gang-robbery, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 456 read with Section 34 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

Ridzuan was liable to enhanced punishment for both charges for breach of a basic condition of his remission order under section 50T(1)(a) Prisons Act (Cap 247, 2000 Rev Ed).

At the end of the trial, I convicted Ridzuan and Thava on the charges. Before the appointed date for sentencing, Thava absconded and a Warrant of Arrest was issued against him on 8 March 2022. At the time of writing these Grounds of Decision, Thava remained at large.

On 22 April 2022, when Ridzuan was due to be sentenced for the two charges for which he had been convicted after trial, he pleaded guilty to three previously stood down charges relating to rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and using abusive words with five other charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing. He was sentenced on five charges, for the two charges he had been convicted of after trial and the three charges he pleaded guilty to.

Ridzuan has now appealed against his conviction and sentence. I first deal with his appeal against conviction followed by his appeal against sentence on the five charges.

The undisputed facts

The undisputed facts as provided by the Joint Statement of Agreed Facts (P3) as well as the facts that emerged unchallenged at trial were that on 11 December 2017, both Ridzuan and Thava were in a rented silver Volvo bearing deregistered licence plate no. SCN2256J driven by Shanker Mahalingam (“Shanker”), together with Nor Mohamad Azril Bin Sajali (“Azril”) and Juraimi Bin Jupri (“Juraimi”). They proceeded in the Volvo to 93A Rowell Road (“the premises”) where Sikder Sujan (“Sujan”) was residing in Room 4 at the 2nd floor of the premises.

At around 3.00 am, Ridzuan, Thava, Juraimi and Azril gained entry into the premises with a key that Thava had in his possession. The door to the premises was self-locking and could not be entered without the use of a key. Ridzuan, Thava, Juraimi and Azril ascended the stairs to the 2nd floor. Shanker remained with the car. On the 2nd floor, Sujan, Soleman Alam (“Soleman”), Alamgir Md (“Alamgir”) and Rana Salim were present in Room 4.

At about 3.08am on 11 December 2017, Sujan used Soleman’s phone to make a police report (P4) that four persons took money from his friend which had been collected that day.

Shanker left Singapore for Malaysia on 17 December 2017 at about 8.06 am via a motorized boat from Changi Creek.

Thava left Singapore on 29 December 2017 for Malaysia on a 30-day social visit pass which expired on 28 January 2018 after which he overstayed in Malaysia.

A Warrant of Arrest was issued against Thava and Shanker on 15 January 2018 (P15) and 15 February 2018 (P14) respectively. Shanker and Thava were arrested by Malaysian police on 12 April 2018 and handed over to the Singapore police.

Azril, Juraimi and Shanker each pleaded guilty to a charge of committing gang robbery together with Ridzuan and Thava with a charge of housebreaking by night with common intention being taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing. Azril pleaded guilty on 5 February 2020 whilst Shanker and Juraimi pleaded guilty on 9 March 2020.

CCTV footages taken from cameras in the vicinity of 93A Rowell Road and photographs were admitted with the consent of parties. The location of the CCTV cameras was reflected at P7 and a summary of the footages and screenshot was reflected at P9.

Summary of the prosecution’s evidence Events leading up to the incident on 11 December 2017 and after

On the night of 10 December 2017, Shanker called Safit and instructed him to rent a car and get lookouts to be alert for police in civilian attire and police cars in the vicinity of Rowell Road and Veerasamy Road. Shanker also told Safit to change the licence plate on the car; procure and place gloves in the car and to leave the car and its keys at an open carpark in Rangoon Lane. Safit proceeded to instruct Valier Emmanuelle Ramanee (“Valerie”) and Udaya Kumar s/o Manoker (“Udaya”) to rent a car. They proceeded to rent a silver Volvo bearing licence plate no. SLM9630L. Safit passed Valerie and Udaya another license plate with a deregistered licence plate SCN 2256J which they affixed over the rental car’s license plate.

Thereafter, Valerie drove the Volvo to the Rangoon Lane carpark at about 1.00 am. She had gone to Mustafa Shopping centre to buy 5 pairs of gloves and duct tape. She passed the items to Udaya. Udaya used the duct tape to tape the deregistered number plate to the silver Volvo and placed the five pairs of gloves in the car. He left the Volvo at the carpark with the keys on top of the back tyre. Udaya called Safit and he was instructed to go a coffee shop. He left with Valerie in Valerie’s car for the coffeeshop and saw Safit and Maresh s/o Raja Prakash (“Maresh”) at the coffee shop. Muhammad Ashraf Bin Haniffa (“Ashraf”) and Muhammad Hafiz Bin Nuryusof (“Hafiz”) were there as well. Valerie then drove all six of them and dropped off Ashraf, Hafiz and Maresh towards the main road. Safit testified that his role was that of a lookout at the vicinity of Rowell Road and Veerasamy Road. He also deployed Ashraf, Hafiz, Maresh and Noorul Amin S/O Noor Mohamed (“Noorul’) as lookouts. They were instructed to lookout for car movements including police cars and police in civilian attire. Safit testified that it was Shanker who instructed him to do all these things. The rest of them proceeded back to the Rangoon Lane carpark where the Volvo was and wiped the car as instructed by Safit to do so. Valerie testified that the wiping down of the car was to erase traces of something that had been illegally done.

Safit testified that on 11 December 2017, Shanker left $5,000 on a plastic bag at his doorstep which was meant for Maresh, Valerie, Noorul, Ashraf, Udaya and Safit. Safit took $1,000 for himself and he gave $4000 to rest of them. Safit paid Udaya $500 for his efforts. Safit passed Valerie $1,000 for her efforts, of which $500 was to be passed to Maresh. Valerie testified that when she asked Safit what the money was for Safit replied that that it was for something do with robbery or kidnapping in the morning of 11 December 2017.

From the CCTV video footages, the following sequence of events took place.

On 11 December 2017 at about 1.12am, Juraimi and Azril met up at the junction of Serangoon Road and Rangoon Road. They then walked along Rangoon Road. At about 2.16am, at the entrance of Starlight Terrace along Rangoon Road, Juraimi and Azril boarded a white Hyundai which was driven by Shanker at the material time, with Thava seated at the front passenger seat.

At about 2.19am, Ridzuan drove his white Subaru and parked it at Starlight Terrace. At about 2.24am, Azril alighted from Shanker’s white Hyundai and fetched Ridzuan from Starlight Terrace to Shanker’s white Hyundai which was parked along Rangoon Road. At about 2.25am, after Azril and Ridzuan boarded Shanker’s white Hyundai, the five of them proceeded to the car park. At about 2.44am. while at the carpark, all five of them alighted from Shanker’s white Hyundai and boarded the silver Volvo rented by Valerie. At about 2.51am, Shanker drove the silver Volvo with the four others as passengers and exited the Carpark. The silver Volvo arrived as 93A Rowell Road at around 3.01am. At about 3.05am, Juraimi, Azril, Ridzuan and Thava boarded the silver Volvo and proceeded back to the carpark. While at the carpark, the five of them alighted from the silver Volvo and boarded Shanker’s white Hyundai. At about 3.08am, Shanker drove out of the carpark and sent Azril and Ridzuan back to Starlight Terrace. He then dropped Juraimi off by the road.

Valerie, Udaya and Safit pleaded guilty to offences under s 204A Penal Code for their involvement in providing the rental car with an affixed false licence plate for the group to use in the robbery.

Evidence of the complainants

Sujan testified that he was with Soleman, Alamgir and Rana Salim in Room 4 at the second floor of 93A Rowell Road when two men entered...