Court calls for reformative training report on recalcitrant gang member convicted of 17 charges

SINGAPORE – A recalcitrant 20-year-old member of a secret society consistently reoffended between 2022 and 2024, even when he was out on bail.

The man, who was still a teenager when he committed his offences, pleaded guilty to 17 charges on Feb 26.

He cannot be named due to a court order to protect the identity of some of his victims.

His charges include one for rioting with a dangerous weapon, several counts of dangerous or careless driving without a valid licence, drug consumption, and distributing intimate recordings of his sexual partner.

Another 11 similar charges are being taken into consideration for his sentencing.

The court has ordered a reformative training suitability report for the offender, and his case will be heard again on April 9.

Reformative training is a more severe punishment than probation and results in a criminal record. It involves being detained in a reformative training centre for six to 12 months to attend rehabilitative programmes and counselling.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said she had sought reformative training due to the serious nature of the man’s offences.

She added that the sheer spectrum of the offences, coupled with his reoffending on at least 10 occasions while out on bail, warranted a more severe sentence.

The court heard that the recalcitrant gang member was arrested on Dec 17, 2022, after he and 11 other people were found to have beaten up another man.

The prosecution said the young man and his group were all members of the “Sio Kun Tong” secret society group.

At the time, they had beaten up the victim as they believed he had a problem with their gang. The group was armed with parangs and wooden sticks with which they attacked the victim.

The then teenager was released on bail on Dec 23, 2022.

The court heard that the offender had a casual relationship with a female acquaintance in 2022.

Over this period, he took at least 10 intimate videos of the woman while they were at a public staircase in Clementi. She told him to keep the videos to himself.

At that time, the teen was an administrator of a Telegram group which shared personal videos of women engaging in sexual activity.

Between May and September 2022, he sold four videos he had taken of the victim engaging in various sexual activities to unknown Telegram users for $50 each. In all, he had distributed the videos on at least eight occasions.

The woman lodged a police report after she was told by various people that videos of her were being circulated on public Telegram channels.

He was arrested on Sept 29, 2022, and released on bail on the same day.

On Aug 13, 2022, he took his friend’s rented motorcycle for a ride despite not having a valid licence. He got into an accident after picking up another female friend in Woodlands.

His friend was flung off the motorcycle after he failed to control the machine, causing it to skid and fall. The motorcycle was also damaged on its right side.

He was arrested and released on bail on the same day, and warned not to operate vehicles without a licence.

On Dec 6, 2022, he took his uncle’s car with the intention of taking some driving jobs on Telegram.

While he was driving along Bukit Timah Road, he swerved the car in and out of lanes to overtake vehicles, prompting other vehicles to sound the horn at him.

He continued to swerve from one lane to another, eventually colliding into the rear of a bus which had stopped at the bus stop in front of Coronation Shopping Plaza for passengers to alight.

After hitting the bus, the car careened forward and hit the base of the walkway shelter pole. The court heard that the total loss incurred by the bus operator was $5,622.64.

On Sept 25, 2023, the man took his friend’s rented car and drove it to Woodlands to pick up another person.

He ended at Woodlands Checkpoint after taking a wrong turn and was questioned by an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer.

The ICA officer discovered the man did not have a driving licence.

In May 2024, he lied to his cousin that he had obtained a driving licence in order to use his cousin’s account on a car-sharing platform.

He had forged a driving licence by downloading an image online and editing his photo and details onto it, before showing it to his cousin.

His cousin then shared his account with him and allowed him to use his rented car.

His cousin’s wife later lodged a police report against the man in June 2024, after she spotted him driving the rented car.

On Aug 7, 2024, he was riding a motorcycle home when he got into an accident. It is not known how he came to possess the motorcycle.

He had spotted a woman, 58, who was crossing Woodlands Avenue 6, and tried to slow down but still hit her.

She was taken to hospital and underwent surgery for multiple fractures to her legs and ribs.

The man left the scene before the police arrived as he did not have a licence at the time. He was arrested around a month later on Sept 10, 2024, and released on bail the same day.

On June 12, 2024, he was arrested again for suspected drug offences.

He admitted to having drug utensils and crystalline substances that were found in a search of his home.

During investigations, he told the police that he had started consuming “Ice” – or methamphetamine – in November 2023. He would do this three to four times a week after buying the drugs on Telegram.