Jul 23, 2010
Ferried stolen cables, jailed
<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
IN AUGUST last year, a Comfort taxi driver picked up a Myanmar national in Sungei Kadut. During the journey, the foreigner asked if the cabby would be interested in transporting some wires late at night. A deal was struck for a fee of $100. On Friday, Ng Bee Hoo, 58, was jailed 1 1/2 months for helping to dispose of stolen property.
The Myanmar national is still at large. A district court heard that at 11pm on March 5 this year, the foreign worker called and instructed Ng to pick him up at the bus stop opposite Fairfield Secondary School along Dover Road at 3am, and then head to the nearby Circle Line construction site.
There, the Myanmar man and two accomplices started loading copper cables into the booth and the rear passenger compartment of the taxi. Ng was then told to drive the Myanmar man and the cables to a trading company at Kallang Bahru. However, while driving towards the Ayer Rajah Expressway, they encountered a police roadblock along Clementi Road.
The taxi halted some distance away and the foreign worker hopped out and fled. Police officers approached the cab and found the copper cables worth more than $7,000. Ng admitted that he was aware the cables were stolen. He could have been jailed for up to five years and/or fined up to $10,000.
