88-year-old Lee Ping Yeng had just bought some food at a coffee shop nearby her Teck Whye flat, and got into a lift to get back home back in April of 2014.
What she didn’t expect however was that a young man would enter the lift, snatch her purse and run away. The theft caused her to lose balance, fall down and hit the back of her head on the floor.
The elderly woman laid there until neighbours found her, and she was later conveyed to the hospital. She died in hospital three days later.
The Straits Times reports that the thief — Muhammad Fazrie Mohamad Ridzuan — has since been sentenced to nine years in jail as well as 12 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to hurting Lee in the robbery. He was arrested almost two weeks since the incident, which was caught on camera by the lift’s CCTV.
It was revealed that Fazrie had followed Lee from the coffee shop and even apologised to the elderly woman before committing the act that would inadvertently lead to her death. He greeted her and said “Sorry auntie”, before snatching her purse away.
Even sadder is the fact that the mere $22 found inside the purse was used by his girlfriend to purchase cigarettes and beverages.
In mitigation, Fazrie’s lawyer argued that the 22-year-old never intended to injure the victim and asked for six years in jail. The judge however agree with the prosecutions that Fazrie intentionally preyed on a frail and elderly victim — but imposed a jail term of nine years instead of 10 given that it was his first offence as an adult.
Other charges of stealing from a hotel locker room as well as possession of a knuckle duster were taken into consideration during sentencing.
