SINGAPORE: A man made off with two boxes containing nearly S$50,000 (US$39,000) worth of red packets meant for a couple during their wedding reception at a hotel.
Lee Yi Wei, 36, made use of his familiarity with the layout of the ballroom at the JW Marriott hotel on Beach Road, as he used to be a part-time banquet server there.
The offender, who is now unemployed, was sentenced to a year’s jail on Tuesday (Jun 24), and ordered to pay about S$46,000 to the victim by Jul 31. If he is unable to pay, he must serve another 100 days in prison.
He pleaded guilty to one count of theft and one count of gambling with an unlicensed gambling service provider.
The victim stated in court documents was the 29-year-old groom at the wedding reception held on Apr 5.
Before committing the theft, Lee first confirmed that there was an available escape route via the ballroom’s side door.
He also knew that during wedding receptions, red packets containing cash would be placed on the registration table at the foyer of the ballroom.
When the table was momentarily unattended, he took two boxes, one blue and one white, containing red packets with cash amounting to S$48,939.
He then fled through the side door of the ballroom.
When the wedding organiser discovered that the boxes were missing, he reviewed the closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) footage, which had captured Lee in action, and called the police.
Lee headed to a back alley along Purvis Street, where he transferred the contents of the white box into the blue box.
At about 1pm, CCTV footage captured Lee keeping the blue box in a locker at the National Library building.
Lee then left for Bugis Junction and spent about S$350 of the stolen money to buy new clothes, which he changed into. After that, he went back to retrieve the remaining money from the locker, threw away the box and left.
According to court documents, Lee is a habitual gambler.
On the evening of the offence, he went to a Singapore Pools outlet and gambled away S$12,200 of the red packet money in four hours.
He also had an account with an unlicensed gambling service provider. Lee deposited over S$36,000 of the stolen money to a bank account before converting these cash deposits into online gambling credits. From Apr 5 to Apr 7, Lee placed 195 bets with the converted credits.
When he was arrested on Apr 7, S$3,000 was seized from him.
