SINGAPORE: A 22-year-old Indian-origin man has been sentenced to two years of jail and six strokes of the cane for his role in an armed robbery of a licensed moneylender in 2020 in Singapore's Jurong East residential precinct, a media report said on Thursday.
Tusheintar Segaran, a permanent resident, pleaded guilty to one charge of robbery, with two other charges taken into consideration for sentencing, the TODAY newspaper reported.
Segaran and two others, also of Indian-origin, fled from OT Credit, a moneylender, with 48,000 Singaporean dollars in cash on November 19, 2020.
According to court documents, Segaran and two other co-accused, Karrtik Stalniraj and Kotta Kumar Jeswanth, had planned to target the shop because it had only two female shop assistants working there.
After committing the crime, the trio fled on foot with 48,000 Singaporean dollars.
Segaran later received 14,000 Singaporean dollars from the loot.
On Thursday, pro bono defence lawyer Nelson Chee told the court that while it was an armed robbery, Segaran did not use a weapon at all during the incident and had served mainly as a lookout.
Chee added in mitigation that proceeds that Segaran had taken were recovered by the police and this is his client's first brush with the law.
In delivering his sentence, District Judge Lim Wen Juin noted the high degree of premeditation involved in the group robbery.
While he acknowledged that Segaran had served as a lookout, District Judge Lim stated it was an instrumental role that enabled the other co-accused to carry out the crime.
His co-accused, Jeswanth, had pleaded guilty in January last year and was ordered to undergo reformative training as he was under 21 years of age during the time of the offence.
Stalniraj's case is still pending before the courts, according to the Singapore tabloid.