Reformative training for 19-year-old NSF who deserted duties twice, used SCDF position to cheat people

SINGAPORE — In less than a year, a 19-year-old full-time national serviceman (NSF) committed a slew of offences, such as running a camera rental scam by taking advantage of his role in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). 

Muhammad Nadhir Kadir Maideen then jumped bail and failed to turn up for a court hearing as well as for his National Service (NS) duties. He was arrested the next day and has been in remand since.

On Thursday (April 23), the NSF was sentenced to a year of reformative training — a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under the age of 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.

Nadhir pleaded guilty last month to 10 assorted charges, including cheating and desertion from the SCDF on two occasions. Eighteen other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

His lawyer Tan Jeh Yaw had said in mitigation then that it was “very hard to find good parental supervision” for Nadhir and that he was previously doing odd jobs as a deliveryman, after completing his studies at the Institute of Technical Education.

Court documents showed that among his offences, he:

• Used another person’s details to sign up for the BlueSG electric car-sharing service

• Pretended to be a victim’s friend and lied that he needed money for prayers

• Sold his friend’s electric scooter, valued at S$1,500, as he was angry with the other boy

• Lied to others that he was renting cameras and camera equipment, saying he needed them for an SCDF event, then sold them off

• Cheated a film producer of more than S$5,000 worth of camera equipment, including a Canon 6D worth S$3,400 and two camera lenses worth S$1,800

• Stole a DBS Platinum credit card and tried to use it to pay for cigarettes at a convenience store

• Ran a telco scam

On Thursday, District Judge Marvin Bay noted that Nadhir’s primary motivation to break the law was to “afford a lifestyle that included frequent nightclub visits”, and that he was envious of his friends’ ability to afford things.

His mother had conceded that she could not control him and that he had defied her advice to stay in school.

WHAT HE DID

The court heard that after enlisting in NS on April 3, 2018, Nadhir first failed to report for his duties for about 36 days from Dec 26 that year to Jan 30, 2019. 

He was arrested on Jan 31, 2019. By then, he had committed a string of offences.

That month, he contacted a 27-year-old woman on e-marketplace Carousell to rent a DSLR camera from her, saying he needed it urgently for an SCDF event.

He then turned up at her workplace dressed in SCDF garb before renting the camera and equipment from her — worth about S$950 in total — for S$50.

The next day, despite responding to reminders to return the camera, he became uncontactable and blocked her on his WhatsApp account. She then lodged a police report.

Nadhir ended up selling the camera and equipment for S$100 to a shop in Peninsula Plaza. When the shop was raided, only the lens kit was recovered as the shop had sold the other items already.

That same month, Nadhir cheated another victim, a 29-year-old film producer, using a similar modus operandi.

When Nadhir turned up in an SCDF uniform, he said he had forgotten his wallet and could not pay the producer. Nadhir then showed the victim a photograph of his NS identification card on his mobile phone and said his supervisor would pay him through a bank transfer.

The producer then rented the camera equipment to him, but Nadhir failed to return them and instead sold them off at another camera shop for S$550.

Nadhir also misappropriated a 19-year-old girl’s iPhone XS, after getting to know her through a mobile friend-finder application. 

When they met in person at her workplace a few days after, he told her his mobile phone was low on battery and asked to borrow hers to watch videos on it. 

After she went back to work, he pocketed the phone to sell for about S$1,000. He spent the cash on his personal expenses.

When she returned home later that evening and tried to sign into her Apple account on her laptop, she noticed that her account had been deactivated. She also realised that her messages with Nadhir on Telegram had been deleted.

SECOND ARREST

After Nadhir was arrested, he was remanded in Changi Prison for four months and released on bail on June 4, 2019. He was then told to continue his NS duties.

But he absconded again, this time for 94 days, and committed more offences. He was arrested once more after missing his court hearing.

During this period, among others, he tricked a 20-year-old unemployed woman into believing he could get her free mobile phones by registering telco lines for her. 

He told her that he would then transfer the lines to his name and that he would pay the monthly bills. She handed over three iPhone XRs and never saw them again.