Man Charged After Stealing Phones & Laptops Left Unattended Across 10 S’pore Libraries

People make mistakes all the time.

The important thing isn’t about making mistakes, it’s about not repeating them.

But when you constantly repeat that same mistake intentionally? That’s when things take a turn for the worse.

Man Steals Phones And Laptops

Such is the case of one 47-year old Sim Chye Lai.

He pleaded guilty to six charges of theft, with another 10 charges taken into consideration.

According to CNA, he was sentenced on 23 June to eight years of preventive detention for stealing phones and laptops at public libraries across Singapore.

His previous sentence saw him serve 7 years of jail but it wasn’t his only offence.

He has apparently been reoffending all the way back since 1989.

Mass Stealing Spree

He reportedly committed 16 offences last year from August to November, six months after he was released from jail.

During this period, he was caught, released on bail before finally having his bail revoked.

On Aug 8, 2019, he went to library@harbourfront intending to steal unattended items and sell them for cash.

He managed to nab a Huawei phone and tablet and tried to sell them.

For some reason, he failed to consider that the phone had a password and tossed it in a bin.

The owner, sadly, couldn’t retrieve the items despite a police report.

Sim also took two more phones at Sembawang library from a man who left them charging. He even took a girl’s laptop while he was at it too.

Then on 1 Oct the same year, he stole a laptop worth over $1,100 at library@orchard when the owner went to the toilet.

This time, though, the owner alerted the librarian yet was unable to identify him through CCTV footage.

But his luck ran out eventually.

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Caught

A library manager on duty at Bishan Public Library recognised Sim from the footage nine days later, as she had handed the footage over to the police.

She tailed him to Serangoon Public Library and called the police who promptly caught him.

After he was released on bail, he went back to stealing items again.

It was over for Sim.

A Trail Of Offences and Punishments

He even made trouble after he got caught.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng said Sim wasn’t very cooperative and requested for eight years of preventive detention.

He noted that Sim has been stealing non-stop since 1989.

Some offences include theft by a clerk or servant in 1989, theft in 1990, theft in 1991, theft and cheating in 1998, theft in 2002 and theft by a clerk or servant in 2012.

While he only got fined at first, punishments escalated to corrective training to the previous case of preventive detention.

DPP Ng felt the current sentence was appropriate to make sure he has no chance to commit those crimes again.

I want to say I hope Sim learns his lesson for real this time, but even the District Judge says its highly likely he might continue these actions again.

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