Singaporean man arrested in Japan for theft, posing as cop to scam local woman

SINGAPORE – A Singaporean man, 34, was arrested in Japan on suspicion of theft using a cashless card belonging to someone else, following an earlier arrest over a fraud case.

The man, who was not named, is suspected of conspiring with a group of people to steal 860,000 yen (S$7,730) in cash from a convenience store ATM in Tokyo’s Toshima ward, Japanese media reported on March 12 citing the police.

He managed the heist by withdrawing cash using a card in another person’s name he obtained illegally, reported the TUY broadcaster.

The man was first arrested in February over a separate case of fraud. According to the police, he called a woman in Yamagata city posing as a police officer and cheated her of around 260,000 yen.

The police arrested the man, who claims to work in the delivery industry, after investigations in the fraud case revealed his involvement in the ATM theft.

This case is the latest brush with crime involving Singaporeans in Japan.

In June 2024, a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs counsellor was

fined 300,000 yen for voyeurism

after he was caught filming a boy with a smartphone at a public bathhouse in Tokyo’s Minato ward.

Separately in November 2023, a Singapore Airlines flight attendant was arrested in Narita, Chiba, for

allegedly shoplifting goods worth just over 10,000 yen

in a shopping mall, then biting a man trying to stop her from fleeing.