Four Vietnamese individuals were sentenced to jail yesterday after they pleaded guilty to looting Uniqlo stores in Singapore. More than 1,400 items of clothing were nicked, including hundreds of brassieres, and the total amount was worth about S$44,600.
Each of them pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing fraudulently obtained items and one theft charge, reported The Straits Times. Van Tu Nguyen, Duong Tuan Dat, and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, aged 30, 27, and 31 respectively, each received a one year and 11 month jail sentence, while 29-year-old Tran Thi Phuong Thao was sentenced to one year and 10 months behind bars.
Channel NewsAsia said that the two men and two women had plotted to pilfer Uniqlo stores here as Vietnamese nationals did not require visas to travel to Singapore. The court stated that the group were intending to re-sell products they stole from the Japanese brand in their home country.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Shana Poon, the shoplifters set their eyes on that particular chain of stores because they had heard most items did not have sensor tags. Before coming to Singapore with social visit passes on Sept 13 this year, the gang lined special shopping bags with aluminium to carry the stolen goods out of the stores without triggering the alarms. They also arrived with empty baggages to bring back their haul.
It was at the Downtown East outlet of Uniqlo that the group got caught after they repeatedly walked out with bags full of about 50 pieces of winter clothes. When the security alarm sounded, they fled and managed to escape, even though the store’s employees gave chase.
However, once the police were alerted, the culprits were hunted down and arrested on Sept 16 at Hotel Re along Chin Swee Road. Officers discovered 818 items worth about S$21,600 stolen from different Uniqlo outlets across the island, but the group claimed they could not remember when and where the crimes took place. Four days later, 636 more items valued at S$23,000 were found in a Hotel 81 branch at Jiak Chuan Road.
All four were not represented in court on Monday, but Van mentioned his intention to appeal against his sentence.
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