Updated: 09/04/2013 19:23 | By Channel NewsAsia
First of five men in Dunlop gang robbery jailed
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SINGAPORE: A man who robbed three Indian nationals of more than S$1 million was on Wednesday sentenced by a district court to eight years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane.
Mohammad Ansari Abdul Hussain, 34, last month pleaded guilty to gang robbery involving S$917,657 as well as to impersonation of a public servant.
Seven other charges that included two gang robberies involving the remaining amounts, and attempted robbery with common intention, were taken into consideration during sentencing.
He was also given a discharge amounting to an acquittal for one charge relating to the possession of a handcuff.
Mohammad Ansari is the first of five men accused of the gang robbery at Dunlop Street last year to be sentenced in this case.
Last September, he and two accomplices had posed as policemen, tied up the three victims and robbed them of more than S$1 million.
The cases involving the other men are still pending.
District Judge Lim Keng Yeow listed several aggravating factors that warranted a heavy sentence.
He said that in order to commit robbery, the men had acted as police officers and donned police uniforms.
“The very symbol of law and order in our society was brazenly turned into a tool of criminality, audaciously employed to achieve the opposite of what it stands for," he pointed out, noting that the matter cannot be taken lightly.
The district judge also pointed to the large sum of money involved in the robbery.
He said although S$899,320 may have been recovered, there was no suggestion that it reflected any co-operation or remorse on the part of Mohammad Ansari or his accomplices.
The recovery appeared to be solely due to effective police investigations.
The remaining sum of S$448,341 has still not been recovered.
The district judge added that the entire operation to rob the men was also designed and executed with a high level of sophistication that showed preparations were meticulous, and the victims were specifically targeted.
Mohammad Ansari could have been jailed up to 20 years and caned for gang robbery. - CNA/nd
