H
Hanzo Hattori
Guest
Jul 27, 2011
Burglar with a conscience jailed 15 months
By Khushwant Singh
OVERWHELMED by remorse, N Dapan Nurri, 31, left the handbag he stole from a second-storey flat in Woodlands in a rubbish bin on the ground floor.
It was found three hours later on the third floor, with many of its contents missing.
Assistant public prosecutor Asran Samad said on Wednesday that police were unable to determine who took the cash and valuables.
But Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said that there was no doubt who the initial culprit was and sentenced Nurri, a sales assistant. to jail for a year and three months.
The court heard that while looking for a friend's house at about 6.20pm on February this year, he noticed that the sliding window and the grilles of a flat were not locked.
There was also no one in the unit then. He climbed in from the common corridor. A search of the master bedroom landed him the handbag.
Its contents included S$5,115 worth of foreign currency such as Malaysian Ringgit, Taiwanese and Canadian dollars.
There were also a $150 gold pendant and a $170 camera.
Nurri told police he left the flat by the same he had entered. On the ground floor, he had a change of heart and abandoned the handbag and its contents in a rubbish bin.
When police recovered the handbag, it only held the S$200 worth of Canadian currency and a Singapore international passport.
Everything else was gone and the missing items were never found.
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