SINGAPORE - Two men and a woman who were part of a group of five who robbed a Bangladeshi national of $250 have been jailed.
On Thursday, Goh Soon Kim, 30, was sentenced to a total of four years and 12 strokes for robbery and two counts of theft of cellphones with three other charges considered.
Two of the co-accused, Hoo Wee Yong, 27, and Nur Hartini Abdul Rahim, 26, were dealt with in another court on Wednesday. Hoo was given the minimum three years and 12 strokes of the cane for robbery, while Nur Hartini was sentenced to three years.
Now pregnant, she had also admitted to taking Ice, the street name for methamphetamine, in September last year.
All three had admitted robbing Mr Shohedul Altaf Shikder, 33, of $250 at the backlane of Geylang Road at about 6am on July 31 last year.
The court heard that the victim chanced upon an illegal gambling stall sometime after midnight on July 31 and started to gamble.
Hoo, Nur Hartini and two others whose cases are pending - Mohd Razlee Abdul Rahman, 33, and Abdul Qaiyum Kamijan, 24 - stopped to look. Hoo and Qaiyum started to gamble. The latter spoke to Goh who was also gambling, as they were both losing money.
When the group noticed the victim had been winning, they devised a plan to extort money from him by falsely alleging that he molested Nur Hartini's modesty.
They followed the victim as he left the stall at about 6am to a back lane of Geylang Road.
Three of them accused the victim of outraging the modesty of Nur Hartini and demanded money from him.
When the victim denied and refused to hand over the money, he was punched and slapped.
They told the victim to hand over the money or else they would continue beating him and also call the police. Out of fear, the victim handed over $250.
The group split the money evenly. Only $150 was subsequently recovered.
The victim was treated at Singapore General Hospital and diagnosed with a left traumatic tympanic membrane perforation.
