Foreign couple jailed after falsely claiming to be snatch theft victims

Court documents show that Hewa lodged a police report at Rochor Neighbourhood Police Centre some time around March 4.

This was despite his wife dissuading him from doing so and refusing to accompany him to the police station.

There, he claimed he was a victim of a snatch theft that had occurred one day before in Bugis Street. He told officers that a robber had stolen his bag which had several pieces of gold jewellery, a smartphone and $400 in cash.

Altogether, Hewa reported that about $21,668 had been stolen from him.

As the reported incident was time-sensitive, an investigative officer contacted Hewa shortly after and sought to meet him to investigate his claims.

But throughout his investigations, the officer noticed several discrepancies in Hewa’s report. He then called Hewa and asked to meet him at Changi Airport, where Hewa and his wife were waiting to board their departure flight.

The pair became frightened as they knew Hewa had filed a false report. They also suspected that the officer intended to confront him about the report.

Hewa and Jayasekara came up with a plan to purchase two bottles of carrot juice and hide the gold bracelet and gold chain Hewa had reported stolen inside the bottle.

At the airport, officers separated the pair for questioning, and Hewa eventually admitted the truth and confessed to fabricating the story.

He also showed officers where he had hidden the gold bracelet and chain by emptying the bottles.