Public Prosecutor v Theophileous Jebaraj
| Jurisdiction | Singapore |
| Judge | Bala Reddy |
| Judgment Date | 03 January 2023 |
| Neutral Citation | [2023] SGDC 1 |
| Court | District Court (Singapore) |
| Docket Number | District Arrest Case No. 901687 of 2021 and Others |
| Published date | 10 January 2023 |
| Year | 2023 |
| Hearing Date | 26 October 2022,29 November 2022,14 December 2022 |
| Plaintiff Counsel | DPP Bryont Chin & DPP Lim Yu Hui (Attorney-General's Chambers) |
| Defendant Counsel | Muhammad Riyach (H C Law Practice) |
| Subject Matter | Criminal Law,Offences,Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Principles,Young offenders,Reformative Training |
| Citation | [2023] SGDC 1 |
The Accused, Theophileous Jebaraj pleaded guilty to the charges and admitted to the Statement of Facts (“SOF”) without qualification. I sentenced him to 3 years and 2 months’ imprisonment with 2 strokes of the cane.
The ChargesThe Accused, a 19-year-old male Singapore citizen, pleaded guilty to the charges set out below:
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The Accused also admitted to the other charges and consented for these to be taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing:
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Statement of Facts BACKGROUND
The Accused is Theophileous Jebaraj, a 19-year-old male Singaporean (DOB: 27/12/2002) bearing NRIC XXX
FACTS RELATING TO THE 4TH CHARGE: DAC-910381-2022
Sometime in June 2014, the Accused became acquainted with one “Mottai”, who the Accused knew was a member of the “Ang Soon Tong” triad society of the “Ji It” group operating at Blk 303 Jurong East Street 32, Singapore (“AST 303”). The Accused asked “Mottai” whether he could join AST 303. “Mottai” agreed, and so the Accused was accepted into AST 303 by “Mottai” and given the rank of “Fighter”. The Accused remained a member of AST 303 at all material times.
AST 303 is not a registered society in Singapore under the Societies Act (Cap 311, 2014 Rev Ed) (the “SA”) and is thus an unlawful society.
By virtue of the foregoing, the Accused has thereby committed an offence punishable under section 14(3) of the SA.
FACTS RELATING TO THE 6TH CHARGE: DAC-910819-2022
The co-accused is Hannah d/o Sheik, a 19-year-old female Singaporean. At all material times, she and the Accused were friends.
The complainant is Chai Woon Hor, a 32-year-old male Malaysian national.
Sometime between September 2021 and November 2021, the Accused contacted the co-accused through the Instagram Direct Message messaging service offering $300 for her NRIC and the password to her Singpass account (collectively, her “Singpass Details”), telling her that he would convey her Singpass Details to someone else who would use them. The co-accused agreed.
Subsequently, the Accused told the co-accused to delete his communication over Direct Message on Instagram with her and that they would communicate via the Telegram encrypted messaging service instead. The co-accused deleted the chats on Instagram as directed.
The co-accused disclosed via Telegram her Singpass Details to the Accused. Having done so, she asked the Accused when she would be paid. The Accused told her to wait and asked her to refer her friends to him so that he could obtain their Singpass Details as well; if she failed to do so, he would only pay her $200 instead of the $300 initially promised. The co-accused did not refer her friends to the Accused.
The following day, the Accused told the co-accused that she would receive a one-time password (“OTP”) to access her Singpass account, and asked her to send this OTP to him via Telegram. The co-accused did so. Thereafter, the Accused paid her $200.
On 4 and 5 November 2021, Standard Chartered bank account XXX (the “SCB Account”) and HSBC bank account XXX and were opened using the co-accused’s Singpass Details. A total of $196,577 was credited into the HSBC account and $196,619 was transferred out of the account. A total of $3,030 was transferred into the SCB account and $2,922.79 was transferred out of the account.
On 4 November 2021 at 11.58 pm, the complainant reported to the police that he was the victim of an online scam, and that as part of this scam, he was asked to transfer monies into the SCB Account, although he did not do so.
By virtue of the foregoing, the Accused has thereby committed an offence under section 8(2) read with section 10(1) of the CMA.
During investigations, the police were unable to retrieve the communications deleted because of the Accused’s actions as described at [7.].
FACTS RELATING TO THE 1ST CHARGE: DAC-923002-2021
The co-accused is Joel Elliot Andrew, a 21-year-old male Singaporean (“Joel”). At the material time, he was also a member of AST 303 and was released on supervision from reformative training.
The victim is Ahamed Bazeer, a 37-year-old male Singaporean. At the material time, he did not know the Accused or Joel.
The involved parties are:
- Segu Jamaldeen Nafil Mohamed, a 28-year-old male Singaporean;
- Navinesh s/o Segar, a 20-year-old male Singaporean; and
- Roshan s/o Raja, a 19-year-old male Singaporean.
At the material time, the involved parties were all also members of AST 303.
The complainant is Yogaraj K Rajendran, a male Singaporean. He is a member of the public and had witnessed the incident.
On 5 May 2021, the Accused was released on supervision from reformative training, under which he was fitted with a GPS tag and was required to reside at Blk 180 Bishan Street 13 #XXX between 11pm to 6am daily.
On 14 November 2021, sometime in the afternoon, the Accused and the co-accused hung out together. At one point, they started talking about the victim. They bore grudges towards him and believed he owed them money. The Accused also thought the victim had belittled his secret society, and the co-accused had previously fought with the victim. They realised that that evening, he would be attending a wedding at the Sri Ruthra Kaliamman temple at 100 Depot Road, Singapore. They agreed to attack the victim with knives there, and to this end agreed to first meet in the vicinity of Ang Mo Kio, Singapore where they would buy knives.
At about 8.45 pm, the Accused and the co-accused met in the vicinity of Ang Mo Kio Ave 8, Singapore. The Accused purchased two knives with serrated edges, which are instruments for stabbing or cutting, from a nearby shop; when doing so, he told the shop staff that he was buying the knives for his mother. After purchasing the two knives, the Accused had them wrapped in newspaper and kept them concealed in a red plastic bag.
Having purchased the knives, the Accused and the co-accused took a private-hire car to the said temple, where they arrived at about 9.20 pm. When they alighted from the private-hire car, the Accused passed one of the knives to the co-accused. They both concealed their knives in the jeans they were wearing, and walked along Depot Walk, Singapore looking for the victim. At about 9.29 pm, they spotted the victim talking with other people at the end of Depot Walk, Singapore. Upon spotting the victim, they brandished the knives and ran towards him. The victim ran away towards Depot Road, and they gave chase. The victim fell at one point. The Accused and co-accused slashed him when he fell but the victim managed to get up and run away. They chased the victim from Depot Road to Depot Lane, and then into and out of a coffeeshop at Blk 118 Depot Lane, Singapore, where there were several patrons present. While chasing the victim, the Accused and the co-accused slashed the victim’s back. After they reached the said coffeeshop, the victim slowed down and eventually fell onto a grass patch in front of the coffeeshop. While he was there, the Accused slashed the victim on his head several times, and the co-accused slashed the victim several times on his limbs and body. They slashed the victim until he lost consciousness. The slashing took place in full view of other members of the public. They only stopped when the co-accused told the Accused that they should stop and flee. The Accused and the co-accused then ran to the HDB blocks opposite the coffeeshop where they threw their knives into the nearby bushes to avoid police detection. One of the knives was later recovered: a picture of this knife is at Annex A. This knife was 47.5 cm long with a 35 cm-long blade.
On 14 November 2021 at about 9.32 pm, the complainant called the police reporting the above. From about 9.32 pm to about 9.40 pm, the police received 7 other calls about this incident.
The Accused and the co-accused then left the location in another private-hire car for Blk 180 Bishan St 13, Singapore, where they asked the first involved party to meet them in a van. When they arrived, to avoid detection, they changed into some clothes they found in his van and pried open their GPS tags (the subject matter of TIC charge...
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