Man jailed for stealing Budget 2020 grocery vouchers from neighbour's unsecured letterbox

SINGAPORE: A man was jailed for seven days on Monday (Feb 8) for stealing his neighbour's Budget 2020 grocery vouchers after noticing that his letterbox was not closed properly.

Zamri Mohamed Ali, 43, pleaded guilty to one charge of stealing 30 vouchers worth S$10 each, which were meant to offset household expenses for needy Singaporeans during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The vouchers, announced as part of Budget 2020, are for needy adult Singaporeans living in one- and two-room HDB flats and who do not own more than one property.

The court heard that Zamri lived with his 37-year-old girlfriend, co-accused Farahdillah Ibrahim, in a flat in Aljunied Crescent.

Farahdillah and Zamri each received their allocated grocery vouchers via Zamri's letterbox sometime before early October last year.

At about 7pm on Oct 9 last year, Zamri checked his letterbox at the void deck as he was expecting a delivery, but did not find anything.

As he closed the flap to his letterbox, he saw that his neighbour's letterbox was not closed properly.

He tapped the letterbox, opening it, and flipped through the letters inside, hoping to find some grocery vouchers as he knew the residents in his block of flats were likely to receive them.

He saw two white envelopes with the words "On Government Service" and knew that they contained the vouchers as they were similar to his own.

Zamri pocketed the two envelopes, which were addressed to two of his neighbours, and noticed that there were serial numbers on the vouchers. Knowing that he would get caught the moment he used the vouchers, Zamri decided to use his own vouchers on household items first.

His girlfriend used six of the stolen vouchers at a supermarket on Oct 12, 2020, and closed-circuit television footage showed her returning to Zamri's home. 

The victim lodged a police report the next day, saying that he had not received his grocery vouchers and found out that they had already been used.

When Farahdillah returned to the supermarket and tried to use two more vouchers, they were rejected. She was later nabbed along with Zamri, and 24 vouchers were recovered from Zamri's flat.

READ: 7 people arrested for allegedly stealing grocery vouchers from letterboxes across multiple locations in Singapore

Zamri is the latest to be jailed over a spate of grocery vouchers released as part of Budget 2020.

A man was jailed for four weeks last month for similar crimes - he had used the stolen vouchers to buy groceries and burnt the remainder as offerings to his late wife. 

A woman admitted last month to using an improvised device made of a pen, a fishing hook and sticky tape to steal such vouchers from letterboxes. She is set to be sentenced later this month.

For theft, Zamri could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both. CNA has contacted the Attorney-General's Chambers about the status of Farahdillah's case.