Man Jailed After Stealing Over $1.7K Worth of Panadol from Pharmacies & Supermarkets

By
Rachel Goh
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Most of us know that Panadol is a medication that is taken to relieve pain, especially when it comes to headaches.

It is a medicine so commonly used that earlier in April 2022, the demand for Panadol had risen so much that the medicine’s manufacturing company had to increase its supply.

So if you don’t know what Panadol is, you probably live under a rock.

Knowing what Panadol is used for, it really makes me wonder: What was giving this man a bad enough headache to compel him to steal at least $1,723 worth of Panadol?

How He Did It

Between October 2021 and November 2021, 77-year-old Lim Soon Huat committed his misdeeds in various stores islandwide, including a Guardian outlet in Eastpoint Mall, a FairPrice outlet at Thomson Plaza and a Watsons outlet in Sun Plaza. 

He would remove the boxes of medicine from the shelves and stuff them in his pockets or the bags he had brought for this very purpose.

Having stolen $1,723 worth of Panadol, his pockets must have been really deep. 

I don’t even want to think about how many bags it would take to hold so many boxes of Panadol.

Lim was eventually caught in November when a Watsons duty store manager at Anchorpoint Shopping Centre discovered that $394 worth of Panadol had gone missing.

This prompted the manager to inform the loss prevention officer of the outlet, who checked the store’s closed-circuit television footage and caught Lim in the act.

The loss prevention officer lodged a police report which resulted in Lim’s arrest on 15 November 2022. 

Sentenced to 24 Months’ Imprisonment

Lim was sentenced to 24 months’ jail on Tuesday after pleading guilty to six counts of theft in dwelling. 

That’s certainly a hard pill to swallow.

Thirteen other charges were taken into consideration as well.

The motive? Lim claimed that he had stolen the Panadol to repay a debt. He had allegedly given some of the pills to his friends too.

Maybe the Panadol was used to quell the headache of being in debt.

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Recurring Behaviour

Unfortunately, it seems like this is recurring behaviour for Lim. He has had similar convictions dating back all the way to the 1980s.

In the past 40 years, he has regularly been in and out of court and has completed two long stints of corrective training. However, it appears that he has yet to change his ways. 

Moreover, state prosecuting officer A. Majeed Yosuff has reported that no restitution for the stolen Panadol has been made.

When sentencing Lim, District Judge Eddy Tham remarked, “The accused appears to not want to change his lifestyle, and despite his old age, he has not ceased his offending behaviour.”

If you don’t know, Singapore’s recidivism rate hovers around 25%, which is relatively low.

Despite these remarks, Lim, who was in remand and appeared in court via video link, asked for leniency, promising not to re-offend.

Those who commit theft in dwelling can be jailed for up to seven years and can also be fined. 

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Rachel Goh
Email: [email protected]