Looks like 31-year-old security executive Ng Shi Qiang has had too much time playing Payday 2. Yesterday, Ng avoided a heavier sentence for the attempted use of arms and was instead slapped with five years and nine months in jail, along with six strokes of the cane.
Armed with a Beretta air pistol, Ng approached the POSB outlet at Yishun Central on the morning of Oct 14 last year after conducting thorough online research on bank heists and carrying reconnaissance missions on a number of banks across Singapore, The Straits Times reports.
Ng had second thoughts at the last minute when two ladies arrived to open up the main door, and did not want to hurt them. He left the scene of the crime (or lack thereof), stuffing his pistol and other equipment in the dry riser unit of a close by HDB block.
Ng would later regret this decision when he came back two days later to recover his illegal arms. A resident had already alerted the police of the suspicious items before he returned.
In court, Ng admitted that the air pistol was a gift from his 27-year-old brother, a Singapore Navy serviceman who brought the gun back from Taiwan in 2013.
Ng, a father of two, had mulled over the thought of bank robbing to repay his debts, including $50,000 on credit card bills and a $100,000 loan from his mother-in-law.
Photo: Chris Yarzab via Flickr
Looks like 31-year-old security executive Ng Shi Qiang has had too much time playing Payday 2. Yesterday, Ng avoided a heavier sentence for the attempted use of arms and was instead slapped with five years and nine months in jail, along with six strokes of the cane.
Armed with a Beretta air pistol, Ng approached the POSB outlet at Yishun Central on the morning of Oct 14 last year after conducting thorough online research on bank heists and carrying reconnaissance missions on a number of banks across Singapore, The Straits Times reports.
Ng had second thoughts at the last minute when two ladies arrived to open up the main door, and did not want to hurt them. He left the scene of the crime (or lack thereof), stuffing his pistol and other equipment in the dry riser unit of a close by HDB block.
Ng would later regret this decision when he came back two days later to recover his illegal arms. A resident had already alerted the police of the suspicious items before he returned.
In court, Ng admitted that the air pistol was a gift from his 27-year-old brother, a Singapore Navy serviceman who brought the gun back from Taiwan in 2013.
Ng, a father of two, had mulled over the thought of bank robbing to repay his debts, including $50,000 on credit card bills and a $100,000 loan from his mother-in-law.
Photo: Chris Yarzab via Flickr