Man Who Stole Bra in Cruise Ship & Claimed He Can’t be Charged in S’pore Now Sentenced to Jail

A man broke into a room on a cruise ship and you will think he did it to steal something valuable.

Did he steal money, electronic devices, or jewellery? No, he stole a pair of bra.

And he thought he could get away with it through a loophole.

Man Who Stole Bra in Cruise Ship & Claimed He Can’t be Charged in S’pore Now Sentenced to Jail

The man, Mr Ng Kok Wai, 29, was accused of housebreaking and theft of a woman’s bra on 13 December 2021.

However, he said that he cannot be charged because he was on a foreign ship outside of Singapore’s waters when the incident occurred.

These arguments however were rejected by District Judge Kow Keng Siong, who said that when a crime has been committed on a cruise ship that operates out of Singapore and involves a Singapore citizen, Singapore’s criminal law must have the ability to bring justice to the victim.

He was sentenced to four months in jail on 15 November 2022.

Moral of the story?

Don’t test the waters.

The Incident 

Mr Ng was on board a three-day cruise to nowhere which departed from Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore on 12 December 2021. He shared a cabin with his father, and the victim stayed at an adjacent cabin.

On 13 December 2022, the man attempted to use his key card to open the woman’s cabin door but failed.

The woman and her friends left their cabin at around 3.30 pm to take part in leisure activities offered on board. Mr Ng then tried to open her cabin door again with his key card at around 5.40 pm.

At around 6 pm, he climbed over the railing of his room’s balcony like a spiderman and entered the woman’s cabin as the balcony door was unlocked.

He saw two luggage with locks and tried to open them forcefully. He took the woman’s bra worth S$30 and exited her cabin.

Mr Ng then re-entered the woman’s room and brought out two pieces of luggage and left them outside to cover up his acts.

After the woman and her friends returned, they saw the luggage outside the cabin and alerted the cruise management that she found her bra missing.

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Featured Image: Igor Grochev / Shutterstock.com