\n<\/p>\n
Two Chinese nationals who broke into a temple in Balestier and stole about $300 from its donation boxes using homemade fishing tools have each been sentenced to 14 months’ jail.<\/p>\n
Liao Yongzhan, 43, and Liao Quanwan, 50, were sentenced on Tuesday (Nov 3) after pleading guilty to two charges each.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, the pair entered the Burmese Buddhist Temple at 14 Tai Gin Road between 1.15am and 4.30am on April 2, 2026, with the intention of stealing money from its donation boxes.<\/p>\n
The two men were friends who had known each other in China. They decided in March 2026 to travel to Singapore to gamble and commit theft, believing the country to be wealthy.<\/p>\n
Before arriving, they prepared improvised fishing tools made from strings and sticky tape, which they intended to use to retrieve cash through the openings of donation boxes.<\/p>\n
After arriving in Singapore as part of a tour group, the pair conducted reconnaissance before settling on the Burmese Buddhist Temple as their target.<\/p>\n
In the early hours of April 2, they climbed over the temple’s fence and used their homemade tools to fish out about $300 from its donation boxes.<\/p>\n
According to Shin Min Daily News, the tools were designed to be lowered through the openings of the boxes, with the sticky tape attaching itself to the notes inside so they could be pulled out.<\/p>\n
However, their actions were interrupted when a Buddhist lecturer who happened to walk past while getting water spotted the two men and shouted at them, prompting both to flee by climbing back over the fence.<\/p>\n
The pair discarded their tools in a nearby drain before taking a taxi back to their hotel to pack their belongings.<\/p>\n
After returning to China, the two men decided to come back to Singapore in August 2026 to gamble and look for further opportunities to commit theft.<\/p>\n
They arrived at Changi Airport on Aug 17 and were arrested at the immigration checkpoint.<\/p>\n
According to the amended charges, both men had also conspired in August to commit another housebreaking offence with the intention of stealing from a property, although the planned offence was not carried out.<\/p>\n
The prosecution sought between 10 and 14 months’ jail for each man, arguing that their actions involved a high degree of planning and premeditation.<\/p>\n
Both men were sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment for housebreaking to commit theft-in-dwelling, under Section 451 read with Section 34 of the Penal Code 1871.<\/p>\n
The sentences were ordered to run consecutively, bringing their total jail term to 14 months each, backdated to Aug 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
[[nid:750147]]<\/span><\/p>\n asyiqin.nadzri@asiaone.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Two Chinese nationals who broke into a temple in Balestier and stole about $300 from its donation boxes using homemade fishing tools have each been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n