Repeat offender, 76, mostly in jail since 1969, gets 9 years' preventive detention for coffee shop break-in
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- Yee Kiee Song broke into a coffee shop to steal some money, a month after he was released from a 20-year sentence for a similar offence
- The 76-year-old did so as he had exhausted his savings on beer and other daily expenses
- The repeat offender had been convicted nine times since 1963 for multiple housebreaking and theft charges, and was released in November 2023 after his latest prison term
- On Thursday (Aug 1), Yee was sentenced to nine years’ preventive detention after pleading guilty to two charges of housebreaking
- Preventive detention is a severe punishment for recalcitrant offenders who the courts think should be locked away to protect the public
BY
DEBORAH LAU
Published August 1, 2024Updated August 1, 2024
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SINGAPORE — Having exhausted his savings on beer and other daily expenses a month after his release from a 20-year jail term, a 76-year-old man broke into a coffee shop to steal some money.
Yee Kiee Song has been convicted nine times since October 1963 for multiple housebreaking and theft charges. Following his last offence committed in 2003, Yee was sentenced to 20 years’ preventive detention.
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Yee has not spent any significant period of time out of jail since 1969, according to court documents.
About a month after his most recent release in November last year, Yee again reoffended.
On Thursday (Aug 1), Yee pleaded guilty to two charges of housebreaking.
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He was sentenced to nine years’ preventive detention, with his sentence backdated to his date of remand on Jan 2 this year.
Preventive detention is a severe punishment for recalcitrant offenders who the courts think should be locked away to protect the public from them.
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Offenders sentenced to preventive detention will be put away for a period of between seven and 20 years.
They must be aged above 30, previously imprisoned, and certified fit for the sentence.
YEE ‘HAS NOT SHOWN REMORSE’
Sometime in November last year, Yee was released from a 20-year preventive detention sentence. The court heard that Yee was sentenced in 2003, after he was convicted for housebreaking.By late December, Yee had spent all his savings on beer and daily expenses.
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He decided to break into a coffee shop to steal some money.
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Yee surveyed a coffee shop at Serangoon for a few days before Dec 29, 2023.
He observed that other coffee shops had locked back doors, and that it would require strength to break these locks before he could enter their premises.
On the other hand, that coffee shop at Serangoon was accessible from the rear, because it did not have any locked back doors. Court documents did not disclose how Yee came to know this.
On Dec 29, Yee waited for the coffee shop to close for the day, before he climbed in over its rear wall at about 1.30am.
The shutter to the coffee shop had been pulled down, but not locked.
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After climbing over the rear wall, Yee lifted the shutter and entered the coffee shop.
At the drink stall, he opened a drawer containing cash at the stall, and took about S$200 and RM$100 (S$29).
While still at the coffee shop, Yee entered another stall which sold Indian food.
The stall had a padlocked drawer, and Yee used a plastic scoop and four metal spoons to break the lock. Yee found S$6,450 in cash, which he took.
After taking this sum from the Indian food stall, Yee then wrapped the cash in a white cloth and placed it in the stall’s buffer heater.
However, he apparently forgot the money, and left it behind.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Suriya Prakash said that Yee later expressed regret at “not taking the S$6,000 away” due to his carelessness.
At about 1.46am, Yee then exited the coffee shop by climbing back over the rear wall.
He made away with the S$200 and RM$100, which he had taken from the drink stall.
Yee was identified and arrested on Jan 2 this year, and has been in remand since.
Seeking a 20-year preventive detention term, DPP Suriya said that Yee “has not shown remorse for his offences”.
Since 1969, Yee “has not spent any significant period out of prison, with most of his convictions coming shortly after his release from a previous sentence”, the DPP noted.
DPP Suriya added that Yee’s reoffending shortly after his release last year “showed that the 20 years previously sentenced was actually necessary for the protection of the public”.
Of Yee’s most recent offence, the DPP said: “While the accused left most of the money… in the coffee shop and did not benefit to that extent, the amount of money that he actually stole (from both the drinks and Indian food stalls) was not insignificant.”
Still, the DPP acknowledged that should Yee be sentenced to another 20 years in prison, he would be aged 96 when released, which was “way beyond the average life expectancy” of a Singaporean male.
Taking the average life expectancy of 85 years as a benchmark, Yee’s lawyer, Mr Don Tan from Chia S Arul law firm, sought a sentence of about eight-and-a-half years for his client, stating that this would “leave (Yee) with a final six months of (life) expectancy statistics” upon his release.
In sentencing, District Judge Hairul Hakkim said that a nine-year preventive detention term would be “appropriate”, and that Yee would be “just over 85 (years old), but still below the national average of 85.7 years” when he is released.
For committing house-breaking, Yee could have been jailed for up to 10 years, and fined.
