Police have arrested six Sri Lankans, aged between 24 years and 30 years, on the afternoon of 15 May 2006 for a series of theft from ATMs and Access with Intent To Commit A Crime under the Computer Misuse Act.
On 15 May 2006 at about 3.05pm, an United Overseas Bank (UOB) ATM Technician, who was escorted by two CISCO officers, was conducting routine servicing of ATMs, when he spotted a 30-year-old male Sri Lankan retrieving a white plastic card from an UOB ATM in Takashimaya Shopping Centre. Suspecting that the Sri Lankan was committing ATM fraud, the Technician alerted the CISCO officers, who searched the subject and found him in possession of another 25 white plastic cards with magnetic stripes believed to have been encoded with stolen credit card data. The suspect was later arrested by officers from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD). Police also seized the white plastic cards together with S$9,200 in cash, believed to be proceeds from fraudulent ATM withdrawals.
On the same day, at about 4.00pm, the CAD officers raided two rooms in a hotel off Bencoolen Street and arrested another five Sri Lankan suspects. A search of their hotel rooms led to the seizure of a computer notebook, a card encoder, more than 1,000 white plastic cards, 300 petrol cards and some telephone top-up cards believed to have been encoded with stolen credit card data. In addition, the officers also seized more than S$370,000 in cash, believed to be proceeds from the fraudulent ATM withdrawals.
The six suspects will be charged in Court on 17 May 2006 for Theft under the Penal Code and Unauthorised Access to a Computer under the Computer Misuse Act. A person convicted of Theft can be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine or with both. A person convicted of Access with Intent to Commit An Offence under the Computer Misuse Act can be punished with imprisonment up to ten years, or with fine up to S$50,000, or with both.
Public Affairs Department
Singapore Police Force
16 May 2006 @ 9.00 pm |
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