In-flight thefts taking off

SINGAPORE - Another man has pleaded guilty to stealing on board a plane, adding to a significant trend over the past two years.

Last year, 36 people were arrested for the crime; the number is 26 for this year so far.

When The New Paper first broke the story on in-flight theft in May last year, 18 reports had already been received by the police.

Last Friday, the court heard that Yue Liangfu, 32, was on board a SilkAir flight from Singapore to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh last month when he opened the overhead compartment and took an elderly passenger's trolley bag to his seat two rows away.

Yue rummaged through the 69-year-old Cambodian man's bag before placing it back overhead.

He pleaded guilty to stealing the bag on July 12 and was due to be sentenced yesterday.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor Krystle Chiang, who previously sought three months' jail for the man, asked for 12 months' jail.

The highest jail term for such an offence has been three months.

The significant rise in the number of such cases in the last two years suggests that court sentences have not sufficiently deterred these cases, she argued.

Police have assessed there is one or more organised crime syndicates targeting Singaporecontrolled aircraft, with offenders likely to be working in pairs and targeting cash.

The most recent case was reported last Wednesday.

A male suspect was seen taking a victim's sling bag from the overhead compartment while the victim was sleeping.

The victim later found 1,500 yuan (S$310) missing. But the suspect had left Singapore and could not be arrested.

DPP Chiang noted that such offences are hard to detect and prosecute as witnesses and offenders often leave the country easily soon after arriving in Singapore.

"This explains the fact that the conviction figures are significantly lower than the arrest figures, which are in turn lower than the number of cases reported," she said.

Chinese nationals

She added the majority of suspects and offenders are Chinese nationals.

Out of the 26 accused persons arrested this year, 24 were from China (22 from Henan province, one from Jiangxi province and one from Hubei province).

Of the 36 accused persons arrested last year, 29 were from Henan province, four from Jiangxi province and one from Hubei province.

In all cases, those accused were first-time offenders in Singapore.

DPP Chiang said investigations have revealed the travel patterns of the offenders to be similar.

They usually travel as passengers on round flights from the Chinese mainland, Macau and Hong Kong to Singapore, and usually stop in Singapore for transit for a day or less before leaving for other South-east Asian countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia.

Some of the accused persons denied committing the offence during police investigations. For instance, they told the police they took the wrong bag in a fit of grogginess after waking.

Yue's sentencing is scheduled for today.

The way they steal

1. Working in pairs, the first person removes the baggage in the overhead compartment and takes it back to his seat or a seat away from the compartment to rummage for cash. Once he is done, he returns it to the compartment.

2. If he finds cash, he passes it to his partner so that if he is questioned, the loot will not be found on him. In some cases, the police have found cash in parts of the aircraft toilet, which could be a sign that the criminals abandoned the loot for fear of being arrested.

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