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SINGAPORE: More men have been accused of breaking into buildings to steal copper wires, and the total amount involved now exceeds S $ 525,000.
Four men are now accused of stealing S $ 500,000 worth of cables from 3NC Singapore, a shipbuilding and repair company. One of these men is linked to another series of robberies by three other men who saw S $ 25,000 worth of cables from three empty school buildings.
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Most of the cables in the new charges filed last week were allegedly stolen by four men between the ages of 27 and 36.
Bangladeshi citizens Mamun, Ahamed Mahfuz, Alam Mohammad Khorshed and Islam Dwin are accused of breaking into the building that houses the 3NC Singapore shipbuilding and repair company at 16 Tuas Avenue 1 to cut and remove all cables there. .
They allegedly cut the fence and entered the building through a hole to steal S $ 500,000 in copper cables between April 6 and 24.
One of these men, Islam, is linked to several other similar thefts of copper wire. He was Initially accused on April 25 of stealing 210 million copper cables worth S $ 11,000 with the accomplice Miah Shobus from the vacant Tampines Junior College building at 3.36 a.m. April 23.
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Miah, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi national, was accused on April 25 of stealing electric cables from the former Jurong Junior College at 11:30 p.m. on January 21 with another accomplice, the Bangladeshi Jan Shak Mohabbat.
Jan received seven new charges last week, accusing him of breaking into empty school buildings to steal about S $ 14,000 in copper cables with Miah and Singaporean Om Shakti Tiwari.
According to the charge sheets, Jan, Miah and Om broke into the premises of the former Jurong JC on the night of January 24 to steal S $ 2,634 in copper wires owned by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
READ: 4 men accused of stealing up to S $ 11,000 of copper cables from empty JC buildings
On another occasion, in February, the three men allegedly climbed the perimeter fence at Jurong JC to steal more cables. They are also accused of stealing S $ 4,260 worth of copper wire from Hong Kah High School on the night of February 29.
The three men were said to have broken into the vacant building that previously housed Tampines JC in March for the same purpose.
They allegedly stole S $ 3,976 worth of cables from this building on the night of April 7, before returning the night of April 16 to steal S $ 3,478.50 worth of copper wire.
Jan and Om are also linked to Islam, as they are accused of breaking into a fence opening in Tampines JC to steal copper wires sometime in March.
ISLAM FOUND WITH STOLEN PROPERTY SUSPECTED IN METAL DISTRIBUTOR
Islam received four new charges, filed during the past week. He is charged with possessing alleged stolen property at the PM Recycle scrap dealer at the Pioneer Center on January 27.
He allegedly had 267 units of copper wire, eight units of brass, 50 units of copper tubing and 10 units of wire for a total value of S $ 729.40.
Another charge claims it owned 106 stolen pipeline units and 276 units of open copper wire at the same junk dealer on April 1.
Most of the men involved are referred and will return to court to receive more mentions of their cases, either next week or next month.
The Ministry of Education told CNA after the case came to court last month that it is aware of the incidents that took place at the former Tampines JC and Jurong JC campuses.
He said both campuses are currently vacant and not in use, and that he has hired contractors to provide maintenance and security services on the old campuses.
Tampines JC merged with Meridian JC to become Meridian JC Tampins, moving on to the former Meridian JC compounds, while Jurong JC similarly merged with Pioneer JC to become Jurong Pioneer JC.
The penalties for trespassing to commit robbery are a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine.
For each charge of possessing property suspected of being stolen, Islam can be jailed for up to one year, fined up to $ 3,000, or both.
