Man jailed 2½ years for his role in robbing victim of $350k

A member of a secret society returned to the State Courts on July 18 for sentencing after being convicted for his role in a $350,000 robbery, among other offences.

Tobias Tan Wei An, 25, is currently in remand. He had pleaded guilty to five criminal charges, including breaking the rules of his police supervision order (PSO) and driving without a valid licence.

Three similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Tan was sentenced to two years, six months and two weeks in jail. He was also fined $700 and disqualified from holding all classes of driving licences for two years.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Lydia Goh said that on the morning of Sept 29, 2023, Tan had called his friend Darren Lim Jun Hao, 24, as he was feeling restless.

Tan knew that Lim was meeting Marc Alexander Chua Kai Xuan to commit a crime.

The court heard that about a week before that, Chua had asked Lim on messaging app Telegram if he wanted to earn some money. He told Lim that the heist would bring them $350,000 in “dirty money”, so the victim would not dare report the crime to the police.

When Lim agreed to his plan, Chua asked him to find a car and recruit one passenger for Sept 29, 2023.

That day, Tan asked if he could tag along, and Lim agreed.

Lim then rented a car and picked up Tan and Nguyen Nhut Anh, 18, a Vietnamese, before driving to Sin Ming Lane to meet Chua.

Chua told them that his initial robbery target had pulled out of the meeting. The court was not told how Chua had picked his initial target.

Chua said he would look for a new target, and left with Tan. The pair later found a new victim on a Telegram cryptocurrency group.

The 35-year-old victim contacted Chua, who was posing as a cryptocurrency seller, and said he was interested in buying $350,000 worth of USDT currency.

They agreed to a deal, and Chua asked the victim to meet in Ang Mo Kio to hand over the money for the digital currency. He gave the victim the number plate of Lim’s rental car.

Chua and Tan then told Lim and Nguyen to meet the victim, and after the robbery, Lim was to drive to Punggol to meet Chua and Tan.

When the victim turned up in Ang Mo Kio, Nguyen got out of the car to open its boot and instructed the victim to put the bag in so that he could count it.

After the victim did that, Nguyen abruptly slammed the door shut and ran away while Lim sped off in the car with the victim’s money.

In Punggol, Tan took the bag of money and placed it in Chua’s car before they all left for home.

Later that afternoon, Tan met Lim at Orchard Paragon and they used the stolen money to go shopping.

They were arrested some three hours later in Orchard Gateway.

The prosecution said the $350,000 has not been found and no restitution has been made to the victim.

Lim was sentenced to 20 months’ jail on April 5, while Nguyen’s case will be heard on July 31.

Chua is still on the run and a warrant of arrest has been issued against him.

The court heard that Tan has had a string of prior convictions since 2009, and was placed on probation in a juvenile home. He was also issued a PSO for multiple offences, including cheating and theft.

During mitigation, Tan’s lawyer, Ms Renuga Devi Sivaram, said her client was not involved in the planning and execution of the heist, and that he had only helped to collect the money and handed it to another individual.

She added that he did not receive any part of the stolen money.

The court also heard that Tan had breached the conditions of his PSO that was in place since June 2023.

He admitted to communicating with another person who was under supervision on July 4, 2023. He had also cut off his electronic transmitting device on Aug 1, 2023.

In addition, Tan had been caught driving without a valid licence on Sept 25, 2023.