SINGAPORE - Encouraged by her ex-boyfriend, a 25-year-old Chinese national consumed drugs and broke into her mother's house. She made off with jewellery and about $6,200 in cash.

Sun Weiyi, a permanent resident, was sentenced to 11 months' jail on Tuesday (May 24) on three charges of theft and taking drugs, with one other charge taken into consideration.

The court heard that in late August last year, Sun, a payroll executive at a hotel in Sentosa, had moved out of her mother's flat in Hougang.

On Sept 10, Sun returned to the flat while her mother was away on a business trip to Vietnam. On the pretext of retrieving her passport, Sun hired a locksmith to open her mother's safe and stole about $6,200 in cash.

Sun's ex-boyfriend, an unknown man named James, then gave her methamphetamine (known as "Ice"), which she consumed alone in a rented apartment.

On returning to Singapore, Sun's mother discovered the broken safe and suspected Sun might be behind the incident. She called the police.

Police arrested Sun on Oct 8 near her mother's flat and found drugs in her wallet.

In mitigation, Sun's lawyer Sng Kheng Huat said that she was suffering from depression and had taken the drugs in an attempt to self-medicate.

Sun's ex-boyfriend fled with the stolen money.

For possessing and consuming drugs, she could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined $20,000 for each charge.

For theft, she could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.