Public Prosecutor v Low Ji Qing
[2015] SGDC 9
Suit No: DAC 902945/2014 & Ors
Decision Date: 21 January 2015
Court: District Court
Coram: Ong Hian Sun
Counsel: Deputy Public Prosecutor Mr Wong Thai Chuan for the prosecution; Defence Counsel Mr Randhawa Ravinderpal Singh of M/s Kalco Law LLC for the Accused
21 January 2015
Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun:
1 This is an appeal by the accused against sentence.
2 The accused, Mr Low Ji Qing, aged 50 years old, pleaded guilty on 30 December 2014 to three charges of theft under section 379 (Cap 224). He consented to one charge of dishonestly receiving stolen properties under section 411 (Cap 224) to be taken into consideration for the purpose of sentence.
Facts relating to the charge (DAC 902945/2014)
3 At the material time the accused was working as a restaurant manager. On 26 December 2013 at about 1pm the accused was at GIANT Hypermart in Vivocity to shop for items for his store.
4 While he was walking around the supermarket, he chanced upon a trolley left unattended at the frozen food section. In the trolley was the first victim’s bag containing her wallet and mobile phone. He then dishonestly took the following items from her trolley:
(i) One white iPhone 5 64GB valued at S$800/- (Eight hundred Singapore dollars);
(ii) One Brown “Gucci”-branded wallet valued at S$500/- (Five hundred Singapore dollars);
(iii) Cash amounting to S$280/- (Two hundred and eighty Singapore dollars)
(iv) One “UOB” ATM card of unknown value;
(v) One “UOB” Visa card of unknown value;
(vi) One Japanese Bank “UFJ” Visa card of unknown value;
(vii) One Singapore driving licence of unknown value;
(viii) One dependant pass of unknown value;
(ix) One “Passion” card of unknown value;
5 The above items had a total value of $1580. According to the accused, he had an argument with his brother-in-law, who is the director of the restaurant he was working at, during a meeting on 20/12/2013. He then was upset about it for days. When he was walking around at GIANT on 26/12/2013 and saw the victim’s items, he took them with the intention of venting his frustration.
6 When he was on the way back to the restaurant, he threw all the items inside the wallet (listed as items (iii) – (ix) in paragraph 4 above) away. He then kept the wallet and the mobile phone and brought it back to his locker in the restaurant. These items were subsequently recovered, though the contents of the wallet were not.
Facts relating to the charge (DAC 913826/2014)
7 On 5 August 2014, the second victim had been shopping at Ikea, located at 317 Alexandra Road (“Ikea Alexandra”). She had placed her handbag into her trolley and had left the trolley unattended while she was browsing for items at the living storage section. At about 2.10pm, while the second victim’s attention was diverted, the accused reached into her handbag and dishonestly took her blue “Puntodoro.com” wallet with brown dots valued at about S$150. The wallet was subsequently returned to the handbag without the second victim noticing.
8 The second victim was later alerted by a passer-by who had spotted the accused behaving suspiciously near her trolley. CCTV footage later identified the accused as the person who took her wallet.
Facts relating to the charge (DAC 914403/2014)
9 On 12 August 2014 the third victim had been shopping at Ikea Alexandra with her youngest daughter. She had placed her mobile phone into her handbag, which was placed on the hooks of her shopping trolley, after receiving a call from her daughter. At about 2.15pm, while the third victim’s attention was diverted, the accused reached into her handbag and dishonestly took her gold-coloured iPhone 5S 16GB valued at S$395. The mobile phone has yet to be recovered.
10 The accused was arrested after CCTV footage identified him as the person who took the third victim’s mobile phone.
11 The accused had first been charged on 28 December 2013 for the first offence, and had committed the offences that are the subject of the other two subsequent charges while he was out on bail
Antecedents
12 The accused had convictions since 26 December 1985 for theft related offences on numerous occasions which culminated in him being sentenced to preventive detention for a period of 10 years in 2 February 2000. Upon his release from preventive detention, he re-offended again for theft related offences and he was granted probation for a period of 36 months on 19 January 2011. However he re-offended whilst he was placed on probation and was further granted probation for a further period of 36 months on 30 Jan 2012. The accused re-offended again for theft related offences while he was on his second probation and he was sentenced to a total imprisonment term of 13 months on 22 March 2013.
Mitigation
13 The Counsel for the accused referred this Court to the psychiatric assessment report by Doctor Derrick Yeo, dated 20th January 2014 where Dr Derrick Yeo opined that the accused offending behaviour does have a causal link to his psychiatric condition of Fetishism and suggested that should the accused be imprisoned he should still be reviewed regularly by a psychiatrist in prison. In his written submission, the Counsel for the accused referred to the case of Ng So Kuen [2003] 3 SLR 178 and urged this Court not to impose a deterrent imprisonment sentence but to consider the unique circumstances of this case and grant the accused a means of rehabilitation, that is, a custodial sentence of 3 years, where he can continue his treatment while he is in prison.
Prosecution’s Submission on Sentence
14 The Prosecution indicated that they are not pressing for preventive detention but asking for a substantial custodial term to be imposed in view of the accused lengthy antecedents, his lack of remorse and total disregard for the authorities. While there was a causal link between his offending behaviour and his psychiatric condition, this first report was made prior to the accused’s re-offending on 5th and 12th August 2014.
Sentence
15 In Ng Soo Kuen Connie at [57], Yong Pung How CJ enunciated the relevant principles of sentencing in cases of psychiatric disorders, citing the case of R v Wiskich [2000] SASC 64 at [62] (a decision of the Supreme Court of South Australia) as follows:
“The starting point for the consideration of the appropriate sentence in this case ought to be the fact that the appellant was belabouring under a serious psychiatric condition at the time of the incident..... An assessment of the severity of the disorder is required. A sentencing court must determine the impact of the disorder upon both the offender's thought processes and the capacity of the offender to appreciate the gravity and significance of the criminal conduct. ... It is not difficult to understand that the element of general deterrence can readily be given considerably less weight in the case of an offender suffering from a significant mental disorder who commits a minor crime, particularly if a causal relationship exists between the mental disorder and the commission of such an offence. In some circumstances, however, the mental disorder may not be serious or causally related to the commission of the crime, and the circumstances of the crime so grave, that very little weight in mitigation can be given to the existence of the mental disorder and full weight must be afforded to the element of general deterrence. In between those extremes, an infinite variety of circumstances will arise in which competing considerations must be balanced. [emphasis added]
16 I note that in the second psychiatric report dated 2 September 2014, Dr. Subhash Gupta opined that accused had no depressive symptoms in spite of not being on any antidepressants, and the accused’s records indicated that his Fetishistic urges had significantly reduced of which he attributed to the counselling sessions and therapeutic input from the psychologist at Institute of Mental Health. The accused said that none of his index offences were an intention of or led him to deriving sexual gratification from the stolen objects.
17 I note that the circumstances of this case indicated that accused committed the offences with pre-mediation and deliberate planning in targeting unsuspecting victims who left their belongings in the shopping trolleys unattended. He had shown scant regard to the victims by disposing their personal belongings and stealing their mobile phones thus causing severe inconvenience and distress to the victims. His second psychiatric assessment report indicated, by his own admission, that his Fetishism disorder is not so serious as he did not use any of the stolen objects to fulfil his sexual gratification. Dr Subhash Gupta interviewed the accused’s wife who informed him that the accused did not express or exhibit any fetishistic urges or behaviour and that she had a normal sexual life with the accused.
18 I agree with the Prosecution that preventive detention is not warranted in view of his Fetishism disorder but a substantial custodial sentence is called for in view of his utter lack of remorse notwithstanding that the Learned District Judge in Court 11 had on two occasions granted him probation for him to reform. Having considered the facts and circumstances and the mitigation by the Counsel for the accused, I was of the view that a global sentence of three years’ imprisonment as requested by the Counsel to enable the accused to receive treatment whilst he is in prison would serve the ends of justice and help in his rehabilitation.
19 I therefore sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for the first charge and one year’s imprisonment each for the other two charges and ordered the first and second sentences to be consecutive by virtue of Section 307(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, giving a total of t