Two men plead guilty to vandalising KTM train
Two men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to unlawfully entering the premise owned by the Malayan Railways to vandalise a train.
Filipino Mauricio Pocholo Jorge Martinez, 24, and Gan Kwang Cheun, 20, were reported by The Straits Times to have entered the area through an existing hole and using a spray paint to deface two Malayan Railways train carriages around 2am on 12 March.
A railway staff who witnessed the incident had called the police, who then managed to trace them through closed-circuit television recording (CCTV) and subsequently apprehended them, the newspaper said.
Gan, a full-time national serviceman, also admitted to another charge of trespassing into the Singapore Gun Club on Rifle Range Road in March last year, said ST.
He faces seven other charges of unlawful trespass and vandalism, which mostly took place at the club, and the possession of 126 obscene films, which were discovered in his house in Upper Bukit Timah on 5 April this year, reported the same paper.
These charges will be taken into consideration during his sentencing next month. Meanwhile, Martinez – who was then unemployed – faces one charge of vandalism, which will be considered during sentencing on 25 Jan, reported ST.
Anyone convicted of vandalism could be jailed up to three years, or fined up to S$2,000 and given between three and eight strokes of the cane. The penalty for trespassing into a protected place is a jail term of up to two years, or a S$1,000 fine, or both.
Earlier in August, an SMRT train was vandalised for the second time after a train officer discovered graffiti on it. Preliminary investigations revealed a breach in the fence at Bishan Depot where the train was parked.
Police investigations are ongoing and no arrests have been made in relation to this incident and it remains unclear if one or more persons were involved.
Last May, two vandals cut through the fence at SMRT's Changi Depot and spray-painted graffiti on one side of a train.
Swiss national Oliver Fricker, a 32-year-old software consultant, was jailed seven months and given three strokes of the cane for trespassing and vandalising. He has since been released from prison. His alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Briton, Lloyd Dane Alexander, remains at large.
