Teen buys knife to rob man – as ordered in job offered on Telegram
A 16-year-old boy armed himself with a knife and snatched away a man’s paper bag containing $81,060 after he was promised a reward for committing the offence.
The victim, however, managed to catch and restrain the teenager, who was arrested soon after.
On Jan 21, the youth, who is now 17, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted robbery.
He cannot be named as offenders below 18 are protected under the Children and Young Persons Act.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Jing Min told the court that around mid-November 2023, someone known only as “Dilton” contacted the teenager on messaging platform Telegram and offered him a job.
“The job was to ‘take money and run away’,” the prosecutor said, adding that “Dilton” also told the boy to buy a knife to “scare the other party”.
“Dilton” promised to pay the teenager after he completed the job, but did not say how much he would receive.
The teenager accepted the offer, and around 11am on Nov 18, 2023, “Dilton” contacted him again, telling him he had to do the job that day.
The teenager was tasked to meet a person at the void deck of a Punggol block of flats.
He would be handed money, which he was supposed to pretend to count, before running away with it.
“Dilton” transferred $100 to the teenager’s bank account to pay for the knife and transportation to the location.
The teenager later bought the knife in Bukit Merah, tucked it in his waistband and used his shirt to hide the weapon. He also wrapped a piece of cloth around the handle of the knife to avoid leaving fingerprints on it.
The boy then went to Punggol, arriving there at around 2.30pm.
In the void deck of the block, he met a 33-year-old man carrying a paper bag with $81,060 in cash.
The man wanted to use the money to buy cryptocurrency after earlier agreeing on the purchase price with an unknown Telegram user, the court heard.
The teenager began counting the money before he grabbed the bag and fled.
DPP Tan said: “The victim gave chase. The accused attempted to take out the knife from... his waist(band)... but the knife slipped from the accused’s grasp and dropped on the floor.”
The man managed to restrain the teenager, and the police were alerted soon after.
On Jan 21, the court called for reports to assess the offender’s suitability for both probation and reformative training.
Young offenders ordered to undergo reformative training are detained in a centre to undergo a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.
The teenager will be sentenced in March.
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