A Singaporean on the run for eight years for a $276,000 goldsmith robbery and other robberies at a carpark was jailed for seven years and banned from driving for five years on Monday.

Low Sze Song, 61, pleaded guilty to four charges. Four other charges were considered during his sentencing.

He was 38 when he, together with Steven Ang Keng Leong, robbed Nan Yi Jeweller of assorted jewellery worth about $275,915 at North Bridge Road on April 5, 1991.

He also robbed Ms Wong Chwee Chan, then 31, of her $1,400 watch and $350 in cash, and Haji Mahmud Johari, then 43, of cash and a wallet totalling $263 at the fourth level of Cuppage Centre carpark on April 4 that year.

The two hold-ups were committed with Ang and Lim Beng Seng.

Low's role was to drive a getaway car for his accomplices. He had stolen it from Mr Low Kheng Peow, then 41, at Eden Grove on April 5 the same year.

A district court heard that he met Ang on April 5 at a coffee shop near Ellenborough Market. Ang told him of his plan to rob a goldsmith shop and told Low to wait for him in the car and drive him away from the goldsmith shop.

Ang, who tucked a chopper under the waist band of his pants, walked into Nan Yi Jewellers at North Bridge Centre and pretended to ask the price of a gold chain. When only one customer was around, he suddenly took out the chopper and warned the staff not to raise an alarm. He jumped over the counter and scooped up the gold jewellery into two plastic bags and his pants pockets.

While running to the getaway car, he dropped one of the bags of jewellery, which was later recovered. The estimated value of the stolen jewellery was $275,915.

Ang was arrested about two months later. Seven pieces of jewellery worth $8372 and $5,100 cash were recovered.

Low,who was arrested on April 15 that year, escaped from Singapore in 1993.

In 2001, he was arrested and convicted of firearm robbery in Malaysia where he was sentenced to 18 years. Upon his release last October, he was deported to Singapore.

Ang was given 10 years' jail and 24 strokes for armed robbery in 1991. Lim's sentence was 40 months' jail and 12 strokes of the cane for robbery.