SINGAPORE - A full-time national serviceman used a tenant's key to enter her room where he took $2,505 from a wallet placed under a pillow.

For the theft, Maximilian Tan Jun Xiang, 23, was jailed for three months on Friday (Jan 12).

He admitted to stealing $1,000 and US$1,100 (S$1,504) from kindergarten teacher Gui Ziyue, a 24-year-old Chinese national, who was one of the tenants at his mother's flat in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3.

Investigation showed that when Tan returned home on Dec 14, 2016, he found that Ms Gui had left her keys in the padlock of the gate. He decided to use the bedroom key to enter her room to see if there was any money to steal.

He first turned off the main switch for the closed-circuit television camera in the flat before going into the room. After removing the money, he put the wallet back under the pillow.

Tan went to Bugis Street where he changed the US$1,000 into Singapore dollars at a moneychanger. He deposited $1,750 into his bank account. None of the money, which he spent on himself, was recovered.

Ms Gui discovered her money was missing on Dec 16 and made a police report two days later.

Tan, who had been sentenced to reformative training for theft before, could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.