SINGAPORE - A thief who was obsessed with arowanas stole $43,000 worth of the prized fish from tanks and ponds across the island.
Food stall assistant Ng Thai How spent two years driving around in search of landed properties to target.
Friday, the 41-year-old was sentenced to five months' jail after pleading guilty to theft.
The court heard Ng stole 37 arowanas between 2010 and last year. He and alleged accomplice Lim Keng Tat, 40, would cruise around in a car, looking for tanks and ponds containing the fish.
In court on Friday, Ng admitted taking them from landed properties in Upper Bukit Timah, Serangoon Gardens, Sembawang, Upper Thomson and other areas.
On one occasion, the pair were said to have driven to a house in Telok Kurau in the middle of the night. Lim allegedly parked about 100m from the property and waited there.
Ng climbed over the perimeter wall and used plastic bags to catch 17 arowanas. He then went back to the car and transferred them into a styrofoam box filled with water.
By the time they arrived at Ng's home in Ang Mo Kio, one fish had died, so each man ended up with eight arowanas.
The court heard that the 17 fish were worth an estimated $17,000 altogether.
The last theft was committed in September last year, when Ng netted an arowana worth $3,400.
A month later, police arrested him near his home. They picked up Lim the next day at his Yishun flat. Nine fish were recovered from each man. The rest had died.
Pleading for a sentence of no more than four months, defence counsel Mathew Kurian said Ng had been in custody since Nov 1 last year, and the Housing Board had sent him a lawyer's letter demanding he pay the instalments for his flat. The bachelor lives there with his mother.
The five-month jail term was backdated to the date of his remand. He could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined up to $10,000.
Lim has been charged, but has not been dealt with yet.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20130209-401239.html#sthash.DcyRCqxR.dpuf
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