Mother and daughter went on shoplifting spree in Orchard Road, stolen items worth more than $1,000

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
August 22, 2019

A mother and daughter went on a shoplifting spree and stole more than $1,000 worth of items, including undergarments and footwear.

Fong Leok Moy, 68, and Wong Phuay Yee, 41 - who were both jobless at the time - each pleaded guilty yesterday to three shoplifting charges and were sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Each woman had seven other theft charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

According to court documents, the pair went to a FitFlop outlet in Wisma Atria shopping centre on Oct 15, 2017, and made off with two pairs of footwear worth nearly $300.

They returned to the same store a week later and left without buying anything.

One of its sales assistants decided to follow them, as he remembered that the pair had stolen from the shop the week before.

The 29-year-old man alerted the police, who arrived soon after and conducted a check on the women.

Fong and Wong had in their possession many other stolen items, including 25 pieces of underwear from lingerie store Victoria's Secret and three pairs of shorts from apparel shop Cotton On.

The women also admitted that they had shoplifted from various stores in Orchard Road.

Yesterday, defence lawyer T.M. Sinnadurai pleaded for his clients to each be sentenced to two days' jail and a fine of $6,000.

He told District Judge Eddy Tham: "The two accused understand the seriousness of the offences and are not making any excuses for their actions.

"They vow to never reoffend. They admit to the offences and deeply regret them."

The two women are out on bail of $5,000 each and have been ordered to surrender themselves at the State Courts next Thursday to begin serving their sentences.

Offenders convicted of shoplifting can be jailed for up to seven years and fined for each charge.