SINGAPORE: A tour guide who was on a Scoot flight from Jeju to Singapore was jailed for eight months on Tuesday (Feb 25) after he was caught stealing cash belonging to another passenger.
When spotted by the victim, Zhang Youqi, a Chinese national, lied that he had been searching for his bag.
Zhang, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of theft at the State Courts.
Zhang was on board the same Scoot flight as the victim, a 42-year-old woman, on Feb 4. The flight was scheduled to reach Singapore at about 1.48pm. From there, Zhang would travel to Kuala Lumpur and then to Hong Kong.
The victim, who was with her husband, placed a brown Gucci haversack bag in the overhead compartment near where she was seated. The bag contained a pouch in which she kept cash in the form of US dollars and Chinese yuan.
Zhang’s original seat was in the same row as the victim but he moved two rows behind during the flight as there were empty seats.
At about 1pm, the victim stood up to retrieve her credit card from her bag to buy food on the plane. Zhang observed her and saw the victim’s branded bag.
“Motivated by greed, the accused formed the intention to search the bag for any valuables to steal,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheronne Lim told the court.
Zhang later took the bag from the compartment and brought it back to his new seat. He found the pouch, took some of the cash and slipped it into the left pocket of his jacket.
He then returned the bag to the overhead compartment near the victim’s seat but was spotted by the woman as he was doing so. She asked what he was doing with her bag and Zhang lied that he was looking for his own bag.
He began opening a few other overhead compartments, pretending to look for his own bag, even though he knew his bag was near his new seat.
Afraid that he would be caught with the money, he placed the cash into an overhead compartment where it was later found.
Searching her bag, the victim found cash missing from the pouch. She and her husband confronted Zhang, who denied the offence. By then, the cabin crew had been alerted to the situation.
Two other passengers came forth to say that they had seen Zhang with the bag.
When the plane arrived in Singapore, the cabin crew checked the overhead compartments and found US$885 in the overhead compartment where Zhang had stashed it.
The cash was returned to the victim. She found that 1,000 yuan (US$138) was also missing from her bag, but this sum was not recovered.
Zhang continued to deny taking the money but eventually confessed that he wanted to steal the money to pay off debts in China. He was then arrested.
For theft, Zhang could have been jailed up to three years, fined, or both.
