Man allegedly tried to rob teen of $32,000 in Hougang
A man was charged in court on Sept 5 over his alleged role as the mastermind of a failed robbery of a teenager in August.
Benedict Yee Hong Fai, 29, was handed one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to the 19-year-old while attempting to commit a robbery.
Yee, who is now in remand, did not enter a plea. His case will be heard again on Sept 12.
He is accused of being part of a group that assaulted and attempted to rob the younger man of $32,000 outside the Hougang Green shopping mall on Aug 29.
In a statement on Sept 5, the police said investigations revealed that Yee had contacted the teen on Aug 29 through messaging platform Telegram, offering to trade cryptocurrencies for cash.
Yee had purportedly proposed meeting him at Hougang Green to exchange around $32,000 in cash for cryptocurrencies, to which the teen agreed.
Yee then allegedly arranged for two other men to assault the teen during the meeting, with the intention to rob him of his money.
At around 6pm that same day, the teen was waiting outside the mall when he was confronted by the other two men. During the confrontation, the teen was punched by one of them.
He managed to leave the location before the men could steal the money he had with him.
The police managed to track down the three men after establishing their identities through follow-up investigations and the help of CCTV footage and police cameras.
It is not yet known where Yee was at the time of the alleged incident.
All three men were arrested between Aug 30 and Sept 3. The two who assaulted the teen are assisting with investigations and have not been charged.
“The police will not tolerate such brazen acts of crime and will spare no effort to apprehend such offenders and deal with them in accordance with the law,” said the police in their statement.
Those found guilty of causing hurt while committing a robbery face up to 20 years’ jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane.
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