'I am a law-abiding citizen in China': Man accused of helping to steal S$132,000 3-carat ring

Source: CNA

SINGAPORE: A man accused of helping to steal a three-carat ring worth more than S$132,000 (US$99,000) from a pawn shop in Lucky Plaza told a court on Friday (Mar 8) that he is a law-abiding citizen in China who somehow fell into this situation.

Luo Yi, a 50-year-old Chinese national, is linked to two alleged accomplices, Lu Jingnan and He Yuanlin.

Luo is accused of abetting the theft of the diamond ring from a ValueMax pawn shop on Jul 16 last year.

According to Lu's past court hearing, the theft took place a few days after Lu scouted the shop. Lu then returned to the location with Luo, while He stayed outside.

While Luo spoke to a male employee about gold jewellery, Lu got a female employee to retrieve diamond rings from a glass display case.

Luo allegedly positioned himself in a way that blocked the male employee from seeing Lu when Lu made a signal to him.

While the female employee was distracted, Lu placed the 3-carat diamond ring in his pocket and left the shop, before taking a taxi to Woodlands Checkpoint.

Luo and He left the mall in different directions.

Lu and He then left Singapore by bus via Woodlands Checkpoint. The pair were later arrested in Malaysia.

Luo left Singapore via Changi Airport and was at large for several months. He was later arrested and remanded from November 2023, according to court records.

On Friday, Luo was set to plead guilty. He appeared in court via video-link from his place of remand.

He had two questions for the court. He wanted to know the difference between his amended charge and the previous charge, and whether his new charge could be amended to say that he had unintentionally aided the theft.

After explaining the difference between the charges, Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew told him that the charge could not be amended that way, as the offence of abetment by aiding requires that the abetment be intentional.

Luo then told the court via a Mandarin interpreter: "I am a law-abiding citizen in China, and I'm a legal representative of a company. The theft was already committed, but I got foolishly dragged into this matter.

"I did not abet. There was no common intention. I'm already in my 50s, I have never committed any offence. But I have unintentionally aided in the theft so I plead guilty to this."

He claimed that he had never known Lu and He until he met them in a casino in Singapore.

"I didn't have their numbers before coming to Singapore. In my last 50 years, I do not know this Lu or He person. I do not know them, I do not have their contact details, WeChat or phone number," said Luo.

District Judge Lee Lit Cheng asked: "So you didn't know they were planning to steal a diamond ring, and you did not intentionally help them?"

"Yes," answered Luo. "Also, I don't know when they came to Singapore."

The judge then said she could not accept his guilty plea.

Upon hearing this, Luo said he wanted to plead guilty to get it over with and did not want to "fight" a case.

The judge repeated her explanation to him several times about how she could not take his guilty plea as he insisted that he did not have the intention to abet the crime.

After some back-and-forth, she sent the case back for a pre-trial conference.

Lu pleaded guilty to his crime and was sentenced in November to jail for two years and eight months.

He, who was not involved in distracting anyone or stealing the ring, was given a stern warning.