Six months’ jail for man who cheated girl with intellectual disabilities
SINGAPORE — He had abused the trust of an 14-year-old girl with intellectual disabilities with whom he was in an intimate relationship, first by pawning her jewellery, then her mother’s, worth over S$22,000 in all without telling her.
And when the victim tried to stop him from taking the jewellery on two occasions, Pasu Pathy Sangran slapped her.
The 20-year-old Malaysian was today (Sept 23) sentenced to six months’ jail for one count of criminal breach of trust, two counts of theft and two counts of voluntarily causing hurt.
Sangran’s offences against his victim, who cannot be named due to a gag order, took place at her Pasir Ris Drive home when her mother was away for a religious pilgrimage in Mecca.
The court heard that Sangaran got acquainted with his victim in September last year at Changi Airport, where he was working as a cleaner and she as a food handler employed by SATS. They grew close and entered into an intimate relationship, the court heard.
Investigations revealed that sometime on Christmas Day last year, Sangran called the victim, and went to her house when he learned that she was alone.
There, he persuaded her to pass him her gold jewellery and “promised” that he would return them. The victim obliged and entrusted him with two gold necklaces and one gold bracelet worth S$11,250. The next day, he pawned them and used the victim’s old staff pass to represent her as his guarantor. These were done without her permission.
Three days later, he again visited her when she was alone at home, and asked for more gold. The victim said she had no more gold jewellery but showed him where her mother kept jewellery. Sangran then told her he needed to pawn the jewellery for his business. When the victim tried to stop him, he slapped her face twice. He then took a gold bracelet and a gold bangle worth S$4,000 from her mother’s room and pawned them the next day.
On New Year’s Eve, he went to her home again and took a gold bangle and a gold necklace worth S$6,770 belonging to the victim’s mother. When the victim tried to stop him, he slapped her again.
Investigations revealed that on Jan 1 and 3 this year, Sangran pawned the loot and again used the victim’s staff pass to represent him as a guarantor, without her knowledge.
His offences were uncovered only on Jan 8, five days after the victim’s mother returned to Singapore and found jewellery missing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Lua, who asked for a sentence of at least seven months, said Sangran had offended against an “extremely vulnerable victim” and his acts involved “significant planning and premeditation”. Psychiatric reports assessed the victim to have an IQ of 58, which places her in the “extremely low” range of adaptive and intellectual functioning.
“This is not a run-of-the-mill (case of) criminal breach of trust, but one of the highest scale of these offences,” said DPP Lua, adding that there could be “no mitigating factor” for Sangran’s “extremely serious” criminal conduct.
In sentencing, District Judge Shawn Ho considered Sangran’s young age and his guilty plea, but agreed with the prosecution that his actions are reprehensible. “I trust that during the time in prison, you will reflect on your actions,” said DJ Ho.
Both Sangran’s and the victim’s family members were in court today.
