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Singapore Gang Robbed Courier but Lost the $216k Loot
Khushwant Singh - Straits Times Indonesia | February 08, 2012

Domestic Worker Nurhasimah Abdullah was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for plotting to ambush a currency courier. (Photo Courtesy of the Singapore Police Force) Domestic Worker Nurhasimah Abdullah was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for plotting to ambush a currency courier. (Photo Courtesy of the Singapore Police Force)
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serenityjam
11:11am Feb 8, 2012

"Penny wise, pound foolish" is an adage that aptly applies to this story.

Instead of utilizing cash transfers using computer facilities of banks, the financier uses couriers.

Sure, the savings from bank service fees might be substantial as far as the financier is concerned but the risk and the actual loss is much higher.

I guess that there won't be hand-carried cash transfers anymore after this unless the mysterious person who grabbed the bag from the ground floor is related to the owner of the funds.

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A trio who robbed a Malaysian money changer’s courier pulled off the heist, but a last-minute hiccup apparently led to an unknown person walking off with the loot of over $216,000.

The law has caught up with the trio, which includes Nurhasimah Abdullah, a 49-year-old Singaporean cleaner. She received three and a half years on Tuesday, but escaped caning because of her gender.

Her son Nur Iskandar Shah Mohamed Nasar, 22, is awaiting trial, while the third person, Abdul Jalil Nasar, 26, a Malaysian who had inside information on the movements of the money changer’s courier, has been jailed for three years and given 12 strokes of the cane.

Besides the three plotters, six other people were involved in the robbery: A Bangladeshi roped in by Nurhasimah, and five of his acquaintances who he in turn co-opted to carry out the ambush on the courier.

Five of them were jailed for between three and six years and caned 12 times each last year. One is still at large.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Lim Yu Hui told a district court that the target of the heist, Zainun Sultan Baharuddin, 41, made frequent trips to Singapore from Malaysia to deliver large amounts of currencies to money-changer outlets.

On May 26, 2010, he came to Singapore with another person. The pair, with money strapped to their bodies and cash in a bag, flew from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, and took a coach to Singapore.

They made the necessary declarations, cleared Customs and headed to a Dorset Road flat that their employers had rented for them.

They were in for a hostile reception.

Abdul Jalil, who was a former courier and had the keys to the flat, passed these to Nurhasimah and tipped her off on Zainun’s arrival time.

Nurhasimah’s son, using the keys, let the six accomplices into the flat, where, armed with knives, they laid in wait for Zainun.

Confronted by the group, the two couriers fled the flat, leaving the bag of money behind. One of the robbers then hurled the bag out of the window of the 11th-storey flat to the ground below.

A witness saw a stranger walking away with the bag. The accomplices later told the rest of the group that they did not know who had taken the money.

Police investigations revealed that the fellow recruits for the job had received $8,300 for their part in the heist. They remitted half of it to Bangladesh, and the other half was seized by police.

Police also recovered $53,000 from another of the Bangladeshi accomplices.

Nurhasimah’s lawyer on Tuesday asked the court to impose the minimum jail term of three years, saying his client did not profit from the robbery.

Nurhasimah was sobbing in the dock during the hearing. Her three and a half-year jail term will be backdated to Jan. 3 last year, when she was remanded. She faced a potential 14 years in jail.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.