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Standard Chartered Bank robbery: Canadian faces five-year jail term, but will not be caned due to extradition laws
by The Online Citizen08/07/2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read

Standard Chartered bank robbery suspect David Roach (Source: Nation TV).
A Canadian man was handed down a five-year jail term as part of his sentence after he pleaded guilty to robbery and money laundering in the State Courts on Wednesday (7 July).
31-year-old David James Roach had robbed the Holland Village branch of Standard Chartered Bank five years ago on 7 July 2016.
While Roach was also sentenced to six strokes of the cane for robbery, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) in a joint statement on Wednesday said that the caning will not be carried out due to the need to secure Roach’s extradition from the United Kingdom to Singapore earlier.
“As part of the extradition proceedings, the Singapore Government undertook to the UK Government that any sentence of corporal punishment imposed by a Singapore Court on Roach for the offences for which he was extradited would not be carried out.”
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“This is because the UK’s extradition laws would prohibit the extradition of Roach to Singapore in the absence of such an assurance,” said MHA and AGC.
However, both authorities stressed that the undertaking is not an indication that Singapore has altered its stance on corporal punishment.
The assurance, they said, “does not affect Singapore’s long-held view that such punishment does not constitute torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or contravene international law”.
“The assurance was given solely to secure Roach’s extradition to Singapore to face justice for his crimes. The Singapore Government will do whatever is necessary and permissible within our legal framework to seek justice against those who commit crimes in Singapore,” said MHA and AGC.
Roach had absconded to Thailand on the day he committed robbery before his identity could be ascertained.
He was arrested by the Thai authorities in July 2016 and subsequently sentenced to 14 months of jail for money laundering and other offences in Thailand.
Roach was deported from Thailand on 11 January 2018.
The Thai government had earlier turned down Singapore’s bid to extradite Roach in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries