Jail for man who stole S$600 worth of Budget 2020 grocery vouchers, burnt some as offering to late wife

• Alvin Law Choon Huat stole his neighbours’ vouchers as he was upset he had not received any yet
• When he got his vouchers a few days later, he combined them with the stolen vouchers
• He used some vouchers and burnt the rest as offerings to his late wife

SINGAPORE — He was upset that others had received Budget 2020 grocery vouchers and he had not, so he stole S$600 worth of these vouchers from his neighbours’ letterboxes.

But Alvin Law Choon Huat later received the vouchers himself, too. He then used some of the vouchers in his possession and burnt the rest as offerings to his late wife.

On Thursday (Jan 7), the 47-year-old was sentenced to a month’s jail.

Law, who was unemployed at the time of his offence, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft. Two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

He is believed to be the first to be handed a sentence in court, after dozens were arrested for stealing these vouchers from letterboxes at Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks across the island.

The vouchers had been disbursed last year to help lower-income Singaporeans with their household expenses, 

A total of 229 sets of vouchers — worth S$150 each — were reported stolen as of end-October last year and 55 arrests had been made, Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah told Parliament in November. 

Most voucher recipients are aged 55 and older.

If digital literacy improves among older Singaporeans, Ms Indranee said at the time, the Government may consider issuing digital vouchers in the future.

WHAT HE DID

The court heard on Thursday that Law had stolen four sets of Budget 2020 vouchers from the letterboxes at HDB blocks in Marine Terrace in early October last year, targeting letterboxes that were unsecured or damaged.

“He felt it was unfair that others received the vouchers,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim said. 

When he received his set of vouchers a few days later, he combined them with the stolen ones to purchase groceries and a vacuum cleaner. He then burnt the remaining. 

Explaining his actions to the court, Law said he was caught in a bind when he received his vouchers after stealing his neighbours’.

“If I bring (the stolen vouchers) to the police, I would be arrested. So I mixed them together, bought a little food for my family and the rest, I burnt them,” he said through a Mandarin interpreter.

“I know that by doing so, I made a mistake, so I have nothing more to say.”

In seeking the one-month sentence that Law was given, DPP Lim said the jail term was needed to deter others given how easy it is to retrieve these vouchers from neighbours’ mailboxes. 

There is clear public interest in deterring such offences, she added, as such acts cause significant harm not just to the less well-off families but also to the Government, which has to subsidise the cost of these vouchers.

Law had also not made repayments for the vouchers he had stolen, she added.

“He had committed the offences clearly out of greed,” she said.

Law is out on S$10,000 bail and will begin his sentence from Feb 15, after a district judge granted him deferment of his sentence to care for his 17-year-old daughter. 

This case was not Law’s first brush with the law. In 1990, he was given 18 months’ probation for one count of extortion. And in 2001, he was jailed 11 months for one count of cheating. 

For theft, he could have been jailed up to three years or fined, or punished with both.