SINGAPORE – A teenage girl, who pleaded guilty in August 2024 to cheating and theft, reoffended the following month while she was out in public awaiting her sentence, and stole more than $1,000 worth of items including beauty products.
The offender was pregnant during her August 2024 conviction and she cannot be named as she was just 17 years old when she started her crime spree.
The offender, who is now 20, pleaded guilty to a second theft charge in January 2025.
On April 22, she was ordered to undergo reformative training for at least a year over two counts of theft and one count of cheating.
Young offenders ordered to undergoreformativetrainingare detained in a centre to undergo a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.
Defence lawyer Cory Wong from Invictus Law Corporation had earlier told the court that the offender gave birth to a baby boy in late 2024.
On or before Sept 30, 2021, she entered into an agreement with a former colleague to open a bank account and relinquish her control over it to him.
She went to a bank on Sept 30 that year, and claimed in an application form that she would be the sole operator of the account.
After the account was opened, she handed her former colleague the banking credentials and an ATM card linked to it.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ariel Tan told the court that the offender lost contact with the man soon after, and did not receive any profits for relinquishing the account to him.
Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but she was out on bail when she reoffended on March 31, 2022.
At around 1pm that day, she went to a shop at Suntec City shopping mall and placed nearly $96 worth of food items into a basket.
A store manager later noticed that the girl paid for only one bottle of water at the store’s checkout area.
DPP Tan said: “The complainant decided to follow the accused out of the outlet, and upon catching up with her, he requested to check her bag. In response, the accused said, ‘Sorry, I was too tempted’.
“She committed this offence for the thrill of doing so without getting caught. All of the items... were returned to the outlet.”
She pleaded guilty to these two offences in August 2024, only to reoffend soon after.
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DPP Tan said that shortly before noon on Sept 18, 2024, the offender went to a shop at i12 Katong shopping mall in East Coast Road and stole items worth more than $1,000 in all. They included beauty serums and face masks used for skin care.
A manager at the store alerted the police two days later, and the offender has since made full restitution over the stolen items.
Her bail was set at $15,000 on April 22 and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on April 28.
- Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.
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