A former casino employee wore make-up and disguised himself as an elderly man to get into his former workplace with the intention of stealing chips. Ma Siu Hong, 26, a part-time hawker, hatched a plan to impersonate a dealer in the Marina Bay Sands casino as he was facing financial difficulties.

A district court heard that on Sept 24, he put on make-up, dusted white powder on his hair, wore a fake pair of spectacles and even drew fake wrinkles on his face to avoid being recognised by his former colleagues at MBS.

He managed to sneak in and changed into his old MBS casino staff uniform he had brought along. On Tuesday, he admitted to trespassing, impersonating a holder of a special employee licence by donning the staff uniform of MBS and performing the duties of a dealer.

District Judge Low Wee Ping sentenced him to six months' jail and fined him $5,000, saying the statement of facts read like a movie. Five other charges of impersonation and one of not paying the entry levy were taken into consideration.

Ma's request for his sentence to be deferred until the Chinese New Year was granted. His $10,000 bail was doubled.