A burglar, who stole $300 worth of cough syrup from a Tampines clinic, was jailed for 21/2 years on Tuesday. A district court heard that Cecilia Family Clinic & Surgery had refused to sell cough syrup to Lim Chee Wei, 32, on Jan 14. That night, he was seen by police officers climbing through the rear toilet window of the clinic in Tampines Street 43 at 3am. The cops were on the lookout following a spate of break-ins at clinics in the neighbourhood.

Lim also pleaded guilty to breaking into the Viva Medical Clinic at Tampines Street 42 at about midnight on Nov 25 last year to steal a small bottle of cough syrup of unknown value. This charge was taken into consideration by the judge when passing sentence.

He was allowed to start his jail term on Monday as his girlfriend is undergoing a Caesarean section on Saturday and he wants to see his child.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Asran Samad told the court that Lim was jailed for six years and caned six times in 1996 for rape. Newspaper reports then said that he had raped his then 16-year-old girlfriend at his electrical and plumbing office at Geylang Square earlier that year. Lim was about 151/2 years old when he committed the crime. He was also jailed for seven months and caned three times in 2009 for harassing debtors on behalf of loan sharks.