Shoplifter identified by Sheng Siong’s facial recognition technology gets jail for stealing wine

Together, they reviewed CCTV footage and saw Tan with three bags at the wine section. She placed three bottles of Jacob’s Creek wine into one of the bags and left, only to return minutes later to take another bottle.

CCTV footage showed Tan heading to the self-checkout kiosk, where she scanned only smaller value items but did not scan the Jacob’s Creek wine bottles.

A review of past CCTV recordings unveiled further instances of theft by Tan.

A member of Sheng Siong’s staff uploaded Tan’s face into the security system.

A day later, Tan went back to the supermarket. Mr Tey was at the premises when he received an alert on his mobile phone about her entry.

He intercepted her at the self-checkout kiosk and asked if she had paid for all the items she had.

Although Tan said she had, Mr Tey inspected her bags and found three bottles of wine that she had deliberately omitted to scan.

Mr Tey called the police and the three bottles of wine were recovered.

Tan also made full restitution of about S$470 for the remaining stolen bottles.

Defence lawyer Mr T M Sinnadurai sought one to two days’ jail for his client, saying she was the sole caregiver for her mother and intellectually disabled cousin.

Tan regrets the offences and has made full restitution, said Mr Sinnadurai.

District Judge Brenda Chua said the amount in this case was “not insignificant”. Since her charge was amalgamated and included multiple instances of theft, the maximum jail term is six years, she noted.

“It being an amalgamated charge does signal to me the higher criminality,” said Judge Chua.

She said the jail term proposed by the defence was “too low and not appropriate”.

For theft, Tan could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

As her charge included multiple instances, she faced up to double these penalties.