21-year-old who robbed prostitutes jailed 2 years 7 months
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE – A 21-year-old man who robbed prostitutes with the help of police impersonators was on Tuesday (Feb 23) sentenced to two years and seven months in jail.
Teo Zhi Jie specifically targeted illegal social escorts as he thought “they would not dare to make police reports against them”.
He was convicted of two counts of robbery and causing wrongful restraint to two victims, one count of cheating, and one count of assisting with unlicensed moneylending. He was also given 12 strokes of the cane and fined S$30,000.
The court heard that Teo had hatched a plan to rob prostitutes by roping in accomplices to impersonate police officers. One would make an appointment with the victim as a customer, after which the second person would barge in. They would then identify themselves as police officers on the pretext of making a check in order to steal valuables in the unit.
The court heard that Teo contacted his first victim Hu Yang, a female Chinese national, on Feb 26, last year and asked to engage her services. Upon entering her unit at around 7pm that day, Teo asked to relieve himself in the toilet.
When Ms Hu went to check on him shortly after, Teo had put on rubber gloves, and pushed her to the bed while covering her mouth and tied her hands with a cable tie.
He then called for his two accomplices Lee Qing Yew, 19 and Melvin Tan Shen Kang, 18, to enter the unit.
Among the items the trio picked up and divided among themselves were cash in Singapore and Malaysian currency amounting to S$1,694.35, a Gucci clutch bag, a credit card, among other items. No restitution was made.
Teo also used the credit card to purchase a pair of headphones at Mustafa Centre.
Then, on April 18 last year, Teo, Lee and a third accomplice Andrew Tan struck again with the same modus operandi. Their second victim, female Chinese national He Yuanyuan, was robbed of S$800 in cash, two iPhones, a pair of Gucci sunglasses, one backpack and one wallet.
Teo and Tan fled, but Lee was detained in the unit by Ms He’s boyfriend. Lee made a restitution of S$500.
Teo could have been jailed up to 14 years with at least 12 strokes of the cane for each robbery charge.
For dishonestly inducing a retailer to deliver the headphones by passing off as the rightful owner of Ms Hu’s credit card, he could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined. For assisting in unlicensed moneylending, he could have been jailed up to four years and fined up to S$300,000.
