Daily Lessons from Life 19 January 2012 - Man jailed for stealing S$32

"Man jailed for stealing S$32- CNA 19 January 2012

SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old man was sentenced to a year's jail on Thursday for stealing S$32.

Noraizam Abdullah admitted to stealing the money from a donation box in a mosque to buy food for his family.

The court was told that the donation box at the entrance of the Darussalam Mosque at Commonwealth Avenue West was found missing on December 11 last year.

Police investigations showed that a woman had earlier spotted Noraizam moving the donation box to the second floor.

When questioned, Noraizam told her he was just following instructions. This was later found to be false, by which time Noraizam had left the mosque.

A check found the padlock on the box tampered with and S$32 cash missing.

Investigations revealed Noraizam had used his lighter to break the padlock at a staircase landing in the mosque.

Noraizam, who has a string of previous theft offences, pleaded for "a last chance" and leniency. The court also heard that Noraizam, who has a handicapped mother, stole the money to feed his family.

In sentencing, the District Judge warned Noraizam he may face corrective training if he is sentenced for a similar offence in future.

For theft, Noraizam could have been jailed up to seven years and fined."

One of my buddies felt that the sentence was too excessive and devoid of compassion given that the man stole to feed his family with a handicapped mother to bear!

It can be looked at that way when some of other sentences we came across in the last few years appeared overly lenient for some crimes.

Lessons for me are:

1. the man has a string of previous theft offences. So, we are not sure if e had already paid for those offences or were these taken into account when passing THIS sentence?;

2. the amount of S$32 stolen this time might be because that was what were in the donation box that day. The amount stolen from his previous crimes will need to be taken into consideration and if he had already paid the penalty for them;

3. it is reasonable however for the judge to order some social welfare agencies to look into his handicapped mother and the family's needs when he is put behind bar for a year. Does he has a spouse who is able and willing to take care of the family and his handicapped mother? were there genuine causes for this man to be in this predicament? Had help being rendered to him but did not yield the desired results?

A seemingly heartless sentence by a 'tough' judge or a judge that perhaps could have explained a bit more, may be he did but not reported in this news report, about why the man was sentenced to jail for a year for stealing S$32 to feed his family. Notes: It is standard fare for theives to claim they did it out of desparation.