Failed soya sauce plot: Couple jailed for trying to steal S$51,000 from moneychanger courier
Rodrigo Andres De La Fuente Caamano and Maria Margarita Alvarado Vicuna were each sentenced to four months’ jail on Tuesday (Oct 15) after pleading guilty to attempted theft.
SINGAPORE — It was a simple plan: He would splash soya sauce on the back of the moneychanger courier’s shirt, so she could offer tissue paper and distract him.
While the courier was distracted, her boyfriend would then steal the cash from his sling bag.
All was going according to plan — until the courier simply ignored the offer of tissue paper and walked away.
He then reported the matter to his employer, as he felt like something was amiss.
The next day, Rodrigo Andres De La Fuente Caamano, 28, and Maria Margarita Alvarado Vicuna, 27, were arrested at People’s Park Complex.
The Chilean nationals were each sentenced to four months’ jail on Tuesday (Oct 15) after pleading guilty to attempted theft.
The court heard that they were in Singapore on social visit passes. They had arrived here on Sept 26 from South Korea, and hatched a plan to steal valuables from people by distracting them.
The next day, they bought two plastic bags of soya sauce from a stall at the Market Street Interim Hawker Centre in the Chinatown area, before heading to The Arcade to look for potential victims.
Closed-circuit television footage caught them loitering at the moneychanger outlets there at about 11.30am.
Caamano was captured keeping a close watch on the courier, Mr Hasan Mohamed M Abdul Kader, 58, who had put a stack of S$50 notes amounting to S$51,000 in his sling bag.
Mr Hasan then began walking over to the nearby RHB Bank branch at Cecil Street, in order to buy foreign currencies there.
Caamano called out to Vicuna, who was close by waiting for her boyfriend’s signal. The pair began following Mr Hasan.
Along the way, Caamano approached the courier and “accidentally” bumped into him near a bus stop along Cecil Street.
He then splashed the sauce on Mr Hasan’s shirt and looked away as if he had not done anything.
At the traffic light junction of Cecil Street and Cross Street, Vicuna then approached Mr Hasan and told him there was a black stain on the back of his shirt, repeatedly pointing it out to get his attention.
She offered him some tissue paper but he ignored her and hurried away to the bank. His employer later lodged a police report.
For attempted theft, they could each have been jailed for up to three years, fined or both.
