SINGAPORE — One of five men accused of the gang robbery at Dunlop Street has been found guilty. Mohammad Ansari Abdul Hussain admitted to nine charges, including committing gang robbery.

The 34-year-old, with four others, impersonated police officers and robbed three victims of some S$1.3 million. The incident happened in September last year.

Mohammad Ansari is the first of five men, aged between 30 and 35, to plead guilty to what has been dubbed the Dunlop gang robbery. The other four — Mohammad Faizal Ajmalhan, 30; Magesan Ramasamy, 34; Arunachalam Laksmanan, 34; and Chinnaya Antony Samy, 35 — are claiming trial.

Three of the five men, including Mohammad Ansari, donned police uniforms and posed as officers. They allegedly then told the three victims separately as they robbed them one by one, that they were conducting a search at the victims’ lodging in Dunlop Street.

The three foreign businessmen who stayed at the same place fell for the ploy and were restrained with cable ties.

In submissions, prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said there were several aggravating factors.

He pointed out that there was a vast amount of money involved in this case and that Mohammad Ansari had not only posed as a police officer, but had provided the uniforms as he was a police reservist.

Mr Vaswani said the accused went to great lengths to ensure that the robbery took place smoothly and that the accused played an active role.

The prosecutor added that more than 40 per cent of the money was not recovered and asked for the court to impose a minimum sentence of eight years’ jail.

However, defence lawyer Selva Naidu said the actions of his client was the “least serious” of the definition of robbery, which included causing hurt or death. When asked about Mohammad Ansari’s impersonation as a police officer, Mr Naidu said the move was meant to deceive the victims and not intimidate them.

The lawyer added that while more than S$600,000 was found in Mohammad Ansari’s possession, his client’s share of the proceeds was actually S$250,000.

Mr Naidu said his client would be called as a prosecution witness and asked the court for leniency.

Sentencing has been fixed on Sept 4. If convicted, the accused faces between five and 20 years jail for gang robbery. He will also be caned at least 12 times. CHANNEL NEWSASIA