Man steals 4 motorcycles in 2 hours

In four days, he stole seven motorcycles worth $31,000.

His excuse?

He was feeling stressed.

But the judge was not impressed and sentenced Muhammad Irwan Azman, 25, to 3½ years' jail yesterday over 11 charges of theft, driving without a licence, housebreaking and consuming drugs.

Court documents said Muhammad Irwan had been taking methamphetamine since September last year as he had a fight with his girlfriend and felt stressed out. He took the drug, also known as Ice, because he wanted to forget his problems.

On March 12, he broke into a unit at Block 1 Beach Road with a friend, Mohammad Nazwan Bakri, 23, stealing around $1,800 worth of items from the unit's two Thai tenants while they were sleeping.

Muhammad Irwan acted as a lookout for his friend, who had come up with the plan. The two stole mobile phones, a wrist watch, passports and 1,500 Thai baht (S$60), among other things.

Court proceedings against Mohammad Nazwan are still ongoing.

On March 18, Muhammad Irwan stole a Yamaha YBR motorcycle parked at a carpark at North Bridge Road because he was looking for a joyride. Using a key from his motorised bicycle, he inserted it into the ignition and kick-started the motorcycle.

He rode it until the engine stalled at Marina View, where he abandoned the motorcycle. He struck again on March 21 at around 2am.

This time, it was a blue Honda CBR motorcycle parked at Pahang Street.

He rode it to Beach Road, where the engine stalled. He then parked it on a pavement there before going to a nearby convenience store.

STOLE ANOTHER

When he realised he did not have enough money, Muhammad Irwan spotted an ignition key left in a blue Yamaha motorcycle there and stole it too. He rode to Syed Alwi Road and left it there.

The owner of the blue Yamaha called the police, who found the bike.

Later that day, Muhammad Irwan returned to it and was arrested in an ambush.

He stole another two motorcycles the same day. These were taken into consideration during his sentencing. He committed the four thefts within two hours.

On top of the 11 charges, another 13 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Investigations revealed that Muhammad Irwan stole about $31,000 worth of motorcycles.

In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Siti Adrianni Marhain said: "The seven motorcycle thefts targeted seven different victims. It was clearly a spree."

She called for a custodial sentence.

Muhammad Irwan appeared calm throughout the session, but he constantly looked back at the public gallery.

None of his family members or friends were in court.

In mitigation, he pleaded for leniency and asked District Judge Siva Shanmugam to backdate his sentence to his remand date on March 22.

Judge Siva granted the backdating of the sentence and also disqualified Muhammad Irwan from driving all classes of vehicles for a year with effect from yesterday, and another 18 months upon his release.

He could have been jailed up to seven years for vehicle theft and 14 years for housebreaking.

This article was first published on September 04, 2014.
Get The New Paper for more stories.