3 men charged with robbing woman whom they allegedly locked with her child on MBS balcony

Three male Chinese nationals who allegedly locked a woman and her child on the balcony of a hotel room in Marina Bay Sands were charged on Wednesday (May 3) with jointly robbing her of $50,000 in cash.

Du Kai, 34, Ren Jiliang, 30 and Li Yue, 29, are also accused of assaulting the victim during the commission of the offence, sometime between 6.50pm and 6.56pm on Monday, by grabbing her neck and pushing her, according to their charge sheets seen by AsiaOne.

The case, which is being investigated by the Central Police Division, will be mentioned again on June 10.

On Tuesday, the police revealed that the trio had fled to Changi Airport after the "brazen" robbery and boarded a Shanghai-bound flight.

But police cracked the case within four hours and recalled their aeroplane, which had already left the boarding gate.

The suspects were arrested with the loot found on them.

The police said the trio lured the 45-year-old woman from China into the hotel room under the guise of exchanging foreign currency, before ambushing her and forcing her to hand over the cash.

AsiaOne understands that the woman had climbed over to the balcony of an adjacent room for help. Police said she and her child suffered minor injuries during the robbery.

If found guilty of their charge of robbery with hurt, Du, Ren and Li each face between five and 20 years' jail, along with at least 12 strokes of the cane.

Under the law, when a crime is committed jointly by several persons, each person is liable for it as if it was committed by just one of them.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com