A repeat offender who went back to a life of crime while he was on a prison work-release scheme was on Thursday sentenced to seven years' corrective training.

Eric Heng Jit Siang, 37, had committed a spree of offences, including misappropriating smartphones from a customer of his employer under the scheme, stealing gold bars from a goldsmith shop and forging licence plates of his getaway car. Heng, who has a string of past convictions, was last sent to prison in 2009 for cheating.

In August 2012, under a prison work-release programme, he was employed as a customer service officer with a courier company and was attached to one of the company's customers.

In December, he misappropriated 162 iPhones and sold them for more than $80,000. He used $8,000 to buy a de-registered car and gambled away the rest. On Feb 21, Heng entered goldsmith shop Crown Jewel at Bukit Merah Central and asked to look at some jewellery. After being handed two gold bars, a gold coin and a gold chain totalling $10,297, he fled, got into his Nissan Cefiro with fake licence plates which was parked outside and drove off. He later pawned away the gold items.