SINGAPORE: A couple’s joyous occasion was marred when a stranger stole money boxes containing red packets worth nearly S$50,000 (US$39,000) from their wedding reception.
Lee Yi Wei, 36, was a former part-time banquet server and habitual gambler, who subsequently gambled almost all the money away.
The man was sentenced to 12 months’ jail on June 24 after admitting to one count of theft and one count of gambling with an unlicensed gambling service provider.
District Judge Christopher Goh also ordered Lee to compensate the victims, failing which he will face an extra 100 days in jail.
The offence happened during the wedding lunch on April 5 at the grand ballroom of JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach.
State Prosecuting Officer Segathesan Kannapan told the court that Lee was familiar with the layout of the ballroom as he had worked there previously. He knew that during wedding receptions, money boxes with red packets would be placed on a registration table at the ballroom’s foyer.
When the table was momentarily unattended at about 12.50pm, Lee took two money boxes containing $48,939 and fled.
The wedding organiser, who was notified about the missing boxes and viewed the closed-circuit television footage capturing Lee’s actions, called the police at about 1pm.
Investigations revealed that Lee kept the loot in a locker at the National Library in Bugis, and used S$348 of the cash to buy new clothes from Bugis Junction.
After changing into the new clothing, he retrieved the rest of the money from the locker and left the library. Subsequently, he used S$60 to buy more clothes at the Raffles City shopping mall.
That same day, he deposited S$36,331 of the stolen cash into a bank account via Automated Teller Machines at various locations.
These cash deposits were then converted into online gambling credits. Over the next two days, he placed 195 bets via an unlicensed gambling service provider’s website.
He also visited the Singapore Pools outlet at Middle Road and used S$12,200 of the cash to gamble.
Lee was arrested on April 7, with S$3,000 of the stolen cash still in his possession.
Lee, who did not have a lawyer, apologised to the victims during his mitigation.
“I should have thought of the consequences... (It was because) of my own gambling addiction, and I acted out of desperation,” he said.
“So this is the kind of thing that you do to a person on the day of their wedding?” asked Judge Goh, to which Lee stuttered and could not reply.
Judge Goh said Lee had clearly planned the offence, rather than committing it on the spur of the moment.
The judge also noted that Lee was previously jailed for ten weeks over criminal breach of trust, but details of this offence were not revealed in court.
Lee, who has been in remand since May, has started serving his sentence. - The Straits Times/ANN
