Man gets jail for stealing Budget 2020 grocery vouchers, burnt some as offerings for late wife

SINGAPORE: Angered by the fact that he had not received any Budget 2020 grocery vouchers, a man stole 60 of the vouchers, which are meant to offset needy Singaporeans' household expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He filched the envelopes from unsecured letterboxes at housing blocks in Marine Terrace and later used them - along with his own vouchers that eventually arrived - to buy groceries and a vacuum cleaner.

He burnt the remainder of the unused vouchers as offerings to his late wife.

For his crimes, 47-year-old Alvin Law Choon Huat was given four weeks' jail on Thursday (Jan 7). He pleaded guilty to two charges of theft, with another two charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that Law, who is unemployed, heard about the voucher distribution in October last year after reading about it on social media. 

They were being released for needy adult Singaporeans living in one-room and two-room HDB flats and who did not own more than one property, and were meant to help them with the economic difficulties caused by the outbreak.

Law checked his letterbox and grew upset when he did not see any vouchers. He then looked into other letterboxes at Block 51 Marine Terrace. 

He targeted letterboxes whose flaps were not secured or had damaged openings. He retrieved the sealed envelopes belonging to four victims, each containing 15 vouchers valued at S$10 per voucher. 

Law had stolen the vouchers as he felt it was unfair that other people had received them, but not him. However, a few days after his theft, he received his own set of vouchers.

Instead of returning the stolen vouchers, Law used them to buy groceries from NTUC and Giant, and also bought a vacuum. 

He burnt the remaining unused vouchers as offerings to his late wife.

After coming across an open letterbox, police reported a suspected case of mischief relating to stolen vouchers and Law was caught in the act on closed-circuit television footage.

He was arrested on Oct 29 last year and the vacuum as well as two packets of chicken franks that were bought with the vouchers were seized from his house.

No restitution has been made.

This is believed to be the first sentencing for theft of Budget 2020 grocery vouchers. The police made a spate of arrests after such thefts occurred last year.

READ: 14 more people arrested after spate of thefts of Budget 2020 grocery vouchers: Police

Law has previous convictions for cheating and extortion. The prosecutor asked for at least a month's jail, saying that the clear policy intent of the voucher scheme was to help the less fortunate.

The offences resulted in significant harm not just to the individuals but to the Government, who has to subsidise the cost of the vouchers, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim.

Law, who had no lawyer, said he knew he had made a mistake and asked for leniency. He said he has high blood pressure and had a surgery on his spine in 2015, and needs to take strong painkillers daily.

He said he thought he did not get any vouchers, but after taking vouchers belonging to other people and receiving his own, he did not know how to handle it as he thought he would be arrested if he brought them to the police.

READ: Man and woman charged with stealing grocery vouchers from Tampines letterboxes

He requested to begin serving his sentence after Chinese New Year as his teenage daughter has no one to take care of her, adding that "it's just the two of us".

The judge granted a deferment of his jail term to Feb 15. For each count of theft, Law could have been jailed for up to three years, fined or both.