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SINGAPORE: The value of jewels allegedly stolen by two men who are linked to foreign syndicates behind burglaries in landed property estates in Singapore has been revised down, a court heard on Friday (Aug 30).
There has been a recent spate of housebreaking cases in private residential estates, with items worth S$3.85 million (US$2.96 million) stolen.
Chinese nationals Luo Changchang, 43, and Long Zhihua, 38, were initially accused of breaking into a house along Windsor Park Road on the night of Jun 22 to steal 15 pieces of jewellery worth S$633,000 in total.
The charge they shared was amended on Friday and now states that 27 sets of jewellery worth an estimated S$570,100 were stolen instead.
The items listed in the new charge are:
Long has one other charge for having a purse, a watch, a pair of earrings and five rings on him in a Geylang hotel on Jun 26 that are suspected of being obtained by fraud.
The men have been remanded since Jun 28 and appeared in court together via video-link from their place of remand.
A lawyer appeared for Long, saying his family members were concerned about him and had appointed him to take instructions from Long on whether he wished to claim trial or plead guilty.
The prosecution shared their guilty plea offer for Long, which was to proceed on one charge and take the second into consideration. Long’s lawyer did not make any indication of a plea for his client.
Luo remained unrepresented. He told the court via a Mandarin interpreter that he was disputing the charge in terms of the nature of the charge and the number of items stolen.
Their cases were adjourned for pre-trial conferences in September.
If convicted of housebreaking to commit an offence, they could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
The police said earlier this month that a recent spate of burglaries in private residential estates appeared to be linked to foreign syndicates involving Chinese nationals.
Between early June and August this year, 10 cases were reported in private estates around the Rail Corridor and Bukit Timah Road, with stolen items across the cases valued at S$3.85 million.
Of this, about S$1.36 million worth of items has been recovered.
Other than Long and Luo, a third man – Wu Jinxing – has been charged.
Another 14 are wanted and currently not in Singapore. The Singapore Police Force are enlisting the help of Chinese authorities to obtain more information and locate them, they said.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the syndicates operated in small groups and broke into residences by scaling perimeter walls or fences.
The suspects are believed to be transient travellers who had entered Singapore as social visit pass holders, usually one to two days before committing the offence, before leaving the country after.
Most of the targets were observed to be near park connectors or forested areas, which provided cover and a place to stash loot for later retrieval.
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