Three Chinese nationals jailed for housebreaking

CHINA - Three men from China had more than sightseeing on their minds when they came here, a district court heard yesterday.

Two of the three broke into seven households mostly in the western part of Singapore and got away with property amounting to about $268,000.

Yesterday, Liao Jiali, 30, and Wei Yongjiao, 25, were each jailed for four years after admitting to two counts of housebreaking and theft by night involving $229,400.

A further $39,000 worth of property was mentioned in six other charges against Liao and Wei, which were taken into consideration.

Their accomplice, Wei Yuandong, 25, was sentenced to two years' jail for trying to break into a house at Springwood Height with the pair on Oct 27 last year.

The court heard that the trio were near Lorong Sarhad, off South Buona Vista Road, on Oct 27 when Liao and Wei Yongjiao decided to break into Briton Stephen Li's semi-detached house, which was dark.

Wei Yuandong decided not to join them and walked away.

The two then scaled the front gate, got into the compound, and opened one of the windows and climbed in.

They opened the cupboards and drawers in all the rooms and stole an assortment of jewellery and watches worth a total of $95,750.

Most of the items were recovered, the court heard.

Earlier on Oct 22, the trio were outside the rear fencing of The Camelot condominium in Tanjong Rhu Road when Liao and Wei Yongjiao broke into Mr Mark David Nicholls' unit.

The 44-year-old Briton was overseas then and the maid had gone out with her friends.

The pair ransacked the unit and broke open a safe, getting away with cash and valuables totalling $133,700.

On Oct 27, the trio had tried to break into a terraced house at Springwood Height.

Liao acted as a lookout while the other two scaled a rear fence to get into the compound and tried to prise open a rear sliding door without success.

All three were arrested at Dorsett Hotel on Oct 30 following the arrest of two female Chinese nationals in Cuff Road. Liao had handed two bags and two plastic bags of stolen loot to one of the women.

This article was published on April 22 in The Straits Times.

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