'We are really unlucky': Employee of moneylender robbed twice in five months
SINGAPORE – It felt like deja vu when staff at a Jurong East moneylender experienced a second robbery at their shop on Monday (April 12), just five months after the first.
The November case involved a knife, with the culprit pulling the hair of an employee at OT Credit while holding the weapon. He fled with $48,000.
The stakes were even higher in Monday’s case – Aetos officer Mahadi Muhamad Mukhtar, 38, is said to have robbed OT Credit while armed with a revolver. He allegedly took $24,000.
When The Straits Times visited the unit at Block 135 Jurong Gateway Road on Thursday, an employee who declined to be named told ST: “I just think we are very unlucky.”
The second robbery occurred after heightened security measures were taken by the shop, including the installation of a new alarm system.
The staff member added that the shop is working with the police to further increase security measures, but did not elaborate, citing safety reasons.
The two cases have also caused concern to a neighbouring shop, NBL Money Transfer, whose staff on Thursday urged the authorities to step up patrols and checks in the area.
“It has happened twice here within five months,” the money remittance shop’s assistant operations manager, Madam Lutfunnesa Shahanaz, 53, told ST, noting the use of a knife in the first case and the latest alleged perpetrator’s possession of a gun.
The shop’s staff also said they did not hear any commotion during the time of the latest incident, which is said to have taken place at about 3.30pm on Monday.
Madam Shahanaz added that in her shop, glass panels separate the staff from the customers, giving them added security.
The unit also has multiple closed-circuit television cameras which send live feeds between their outlet and another one.
“We are more scared this time because we didn’t think it would happen again,” she said.
“Hopefully, the police can send more officers to check outside the shops,” she added.
On Wednesday, Mahadi was charged in a district court with armed robbery.
The police said in a statement earlier on the same day that their preliminary investigations revealed that staff at the unit were shown a handwritten note that said: “This is a robbery, don’t shout. I got a gun in my pocket. Put all the money in the bag.”
The staff purportedly handed him more than $24,000 in cash before he fled.
Mahadi was allegedly carrying the revolver during the robbery but did not reveal it to the staff and he is believed to have acted alone, said the police.
He was arrested within five hours of the robbery and if convicted of armed robbery, he will face life imprisonment and at least six strokes of the cane.
He purportedly deposited part of the stolen cash in the bank account of his friend – Nur Shana Mohd Taib. The 34-year-old, who allegedly received $10,000, was also charged on Wednesday, with one count of receiving stolen property.
The police have arrested eight other individuals, aged between 16 and 48, in relation to the robbery.
In the November robbery, Kotta Kumar Jeswanth, 19, was sentenced in February this year to undergo reformative training for a minimum of one year.
This means that he will be detained in a centre and made to follow a strict regimen that includes foot drills and counselling.
During the alleged crime, Kotta had held a karambit knife in his right hand as he pulled the hair of an employee using his other hand. He and his alleged accomplices eventually fled the scene with the $48,000.
The cases involving three other men, who are allegedly linked to the robbery, are still pending.
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