Man on the run for 2 years after robbing masseuse jailed and caned
He was on the run for over two years after robbing a masseuse in her house and stealing from her roommate.
Rigel Douglas Wong, now 27, was eventually arrested while he was working at a nightclub in Singapore.
On Wednesday (December 26), Wong was sentenced in the State Courts to three-and-a-half years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and theft in a house. An additional charge of impersonating a police officer was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that on 31 March, 2015, Wong, met Hideyoshi Tanaka, 27, and Gabriel Foo Junxian, 20, at an internet gaming cafe at Geylang Road.
Wong suggested robbing prostitutes for easy money, and Tanaka and Foo agreed with the idea. The trio took down about 10 contact numbers of prostitutes from the internet and started calling them.
Their first attempt failed when a prostitute cancelled the appointment after being contacted as Wong was late.
A 35-year-old masseuse later indicated she was available after Wong contacted her, and she told him to proceed to her house in Balestier.
At about 2am on 1 April 2015, the trio arrived outside her house, where they planned for Wong to enter the unit first while the others hid behind a nearby tree.
However, their plan was thwarted when the victim saw Tanaka and Foo and she quickly closed the door after Wong entered. He later left the house on the pretext of needing to meet his friends.
The trio later decided that Foo should enter the house first. Wong had convinced the victim to provide her services by increasing the fee to $300.
Upon entering the house, Foo prevented the victim from closing the door to allow Wong and Tanaka to enter. Wong then punched the victim’s face. He and Foo also pushed the victim’s head several times.
The trio warned the victim that they were police officers, with Foo flashing his Institute of Technical Education identification card to her.
The trio then took a $600 Samsung S3 mobile phone, $300 in cash and a $150 Nokia mobile phone from the victim’s bedroom. They also went to another room and stole a $1000 Samsung S4 mobile phone, a $950 iPhone 4 and a $700 iPad mini belonging to the victim’s roommate.
The latter had overheard the commotion and left the house by a back door.
The three accused then sold the five stolen devices at a second-hand shop in Geylang. The devices were not recovered, court documents showed.
The victim was diagnosed with a minor head injury and bleeding in her left eye.
Foo and Tanaka were arrested by the police in April 2015. Foo was sentenced to probation for his role while Tanaka was sentenced to 14 months in jail.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Charleston Teo had called for an “adequate uplift” of the minimum three-year jail term for the robbery offence to be imposed on Wong, as he was the mastermind who played an active role in ensuring that the trio’s plan succeeded.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Henry Lim said Wong was young and hoped to be given a second chance.
In sentencing Wong, District Judge Ong Chin Rhu said that the circumstances of Wong’s crimes warranted an uplift.
For his robbery offence, Wong could have been jailed between three and 14 years, and given at least 12 strokes of the cane. For theft in a house, he could have been jailed for up to seven years, and fined.
