AN UNEMPLOYED man who owed money to an accomplice held up a jewellery shop and got away with $28,010 worth of property.

Lim Wei Liang, 44, had earlier admitted to robbing Ms Hou Bo, 38, an administration officer, with a man known only as Ah Hwee while armed with a parang at Lorong 15 Geylang on Jan 30.

A district court heard that he met Ah Hwee at a coffeeshop in Geylaong that day to discuss about the $500 debt he owed Ah Hwee. He suggested committing robbery to repay the debt and Ah Hwee agreed.

Ah Hwee took him to the the jewellery shop and asked him to commit robbery. But Lim said he was unprepared and could not do it.

Ah Hwee then led him to a backlane where he later handed him a parang and a sling bag which contained several cable ties.

Lim then entered the shop and ushered the victim and three women staff members into the toilet. He tied up their thumbs with cable wire.

Lim then ushered Ms Hou to the display cabinet and demanded that she unlock the cabinet. He stole a Rolex watch worth $5,000, seven watches worth $2,300, and assorted gold accessories and costume jewellery amounting to $20,710.

He escaped via the rear door and handed over the loot to Ah Hwee who handed him $1,500.

Lim, who had also admitted to two unrelated cases of rioting with deadly weapons at Geylang on Aug 28 last year, was sentenced to eight years' corrective training and 18 strokes of the cane on Monday.

He has previous convictions for rioting, being a member of an unlawful assembly, drug consumption and misappropriating property.