26-year-old Singaporean mother receives fine for stealing milk power from supermarket
Last June, a 26-year-old mother brought her two toddlers to a supermarket in Bukit Batok and stole two milk powder tins.
Days later, Lorraine Chan Chu Yi went to a hypermarket with her husband, Lim Soon Leong, and stole 12 tins of milk powder.
Source: DollarsAndSense.sg. For illustration purposes only
She was fined S$3,500 on Thursday (13 June) after pleading guilty to two charges of theft, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported.
Mother & her husband stole 12 tins of milk powder on another occasion
On the first occasion, Chan brought her children — aged two and three at the time — to a Sheng Siong supermarket in Bukit Batok.
She proceeded to steal two tins of Enfamil milk powder, worth S$270,70, by hiding them under their toddlers’ stroller.
The second offence took place three days later at IMM Building’s Giant hypermarket.
Source: Google Maps
The pair hid 12 cans of Enfamil milk power, worth S$1,565.40, in a box before heading to the self-service kiosk.
Even though they paid for other groceries that they had picked up, they did not do so for the milk powder.
Following the theft, Lim listed the 12 tins on Carousell and sold them for S$1,170.
Husband was purportedly the mastermind behind the thefts
The offences were uncovered by staff during subsequent stock checks.
While the 14 tins of milk powder were not recovered, full restitution was made.
Chan’s defence lawyer, Ms Victoria Tay, contended that Lim had hatched the plans to commit the thefts and that her wife had merely agreed to them.
According to Ms Tay, her client committed the crime out of “financial desperation” and not greed.
Lim was sentenced to 11 months’ jail in May, The Straits Times (ST) reported.
Besides his theft offence, he was also previously convicted for other crimes such as cheating and breaching traffic regulations.
Also read: 80 Cases Of Milk Powder Theft Recorded In S’pore Last Year, Most Steal To Resell
80 Cases Of Milk Powder Theft Recorded In S’pore Last Year, Most Steal To Resell
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Featured image adapted from DollarsAndSense.sg. For illustration purposes only.
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