Woman, 27, stole to pay S$500 rent, now fined S$1,000

SINGAPORE — Out of cash to pay her rent, Siti Aisyah Mat Wi resorted to stealing items from gaming stores and other retailers. This is so that she could then sell the items and make some money to pay her monthly rent of S$500.

Now, the 27-year-old Singaporean will have to pay a S$1,000 fine after pleading guilty to two charges of theft. Two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Between July 2017 and August last year, Siti stole a S$46 bottle of vodka, a S$42.90 candle, a PlayStation 4 game cartridge valued at S$72.90, a PlayStation console controller priced at S$67.90, and a S$399 PlayStation console.

They were taken from a supermarket along Stirling Road, a gaming store and a shop selling candles at VivoCity, as well as a gaming store in Tiong Bahru Plaza.

She managed to leave most of these shops with the unpaid goods without being detected, but on June 28 last year, she was caught on a surveillance camera at the gaming store in VivoCity. Its sales manager called the police after finding that some items were missing during a stock check the next day.

The items stolen from the shop — the PlayStation game and console controller — were later recovered from Siti’s home and seized.

Court documents did not state when she was arrested, except that she last stole from a shop on Aug 23 last year.

Police investigations later revealed that she stole a PlayStation console from the display shelf of the shop at Tiong Bahru Plaza on July 10, 2017 and then sold it for S$250.

In his submissions, State Prosecuting Officer Raj Kishore Rai said that Siti was unemployed at the time and stole because she was “desperate for quick cash”.

Now, she is working part-time at a coffee shop that pays her S$600 a month at most.

Before sentencing Siti on Thursday (Jan 17), District Judge May Mesenas rapped her for failing to turn up for her appointments to ascertain if she was suitable for community-based sentencing options, such as a community service order or a day-reporting order where she could undergo counselling and rehabilitation.

In reply, Siti — who was not represented by a lawyer — said that she lost her phone and had problems contacting the officers handling her case.

When District Judge Mesenas raised the possibility of a fine, Siti said that she could only afford to pay S$200 on Thursday itself and will need to pay the rest by instalments. She does not have family members in Singapore, she claimed.

“No one else is supporting me,” Siti told the court. 

The judge then allowed her to pay the rest of the fine in five instalments of S$150 each and one final instalment of S$50 by mid-July. If she does not pay up the full sum by then, she will spend four days in jail.

Siti could have been jailed up to three years for each charge of theft.