PROPERTY CRIMES

PROPERTY CRIMES

35.

Mr Ahmad Khalis Bin Abdul Ghani asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, with regard to property crimes such as housebreaking and theft, (a) what is the trend in the last three years; (b) what are the factors that contribute to such a trend; (c) whether more young offenders have been involved in such crimes; (d) whether there is a perceivable trend in the theft of handphones and what factors contribute to it; and (e) whether most of the offenders and victims of handphone thefts are young people.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: There were 1,110, 1,340, and 1,240 reported housebreaking cases in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively. In the first half of this year, housebreaking cases increased by 48% compared with the same period in 2004. In the corresponding period, Police made 48% more arrests for housebreaking.

The increase in housebreaking cases can be attributed to an increase in the number of cases committed by serial offenders. 25% of housebreaking cases reported in the first six months of 2005 were committed by serial offenders, compared to 19% in the same period

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in 2004. These serial offenders typically target residential premises, education centres and childcare centres.

At the same time, negligence on the part of the victims has contributed to this rising trend. In the first half of 2005, there were 14% more break-ins at residential premises in public housing estates as compared to the same period in 2004, where the perpetrators gained entry through unsecured windows or doors, or there was no sign of tampering. This suggests that, if residents pay more attention to securing their own premises, they can prevent such housebreaking crimes from being committed.

Turning to theft and related offences, there were 16,840, 16,720 and 17,990 cases of theft and related crimes in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively. In the first six months of this year, there was a 31% increase in the number of theft cases compared to the same period last year.

The increase in theft and related crimes can be attributed to more cases of shop theft and theft in dwelling, as well as other theft cases where victims lose their belongings, such as handphones, after leaving them unattended in public areas, such as food centres and basketball courts.

The number of youths involved in housebreaking and theft offences has been relatively stable. For housebreaking offences, 80, 110 and 100 youths were arrested in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, while for theft and related offences, 2,910, 3,140 and 2,980 youths were arrested in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Mr Ahmad Khalis asked about the trend in handphone theft cases. This has been on the increase over the past three years. There were 2,480, 3,260 and 3,410 cases of handphone theft in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively. For the first half of this year, we saw a 44% increase in handphone theft cases as compared to the same period last year. More than half of these handphone theft cases could have been prevented, as they were stolen when victims left their phones unattended in public areas, inside vehicles or at home. In addition, handphones have also been the primary target for robbers, cheats and snatch thieves.

Factors contributing to the rising trend in handphone theft cases include the increasing ownership and use of handphones in Singapore, including by young people, the relatively high value of handphones and the ease of disposal (eg, by selling handphones to second-hand phone shops).

Of the 600 offenders arrested for handphone-related offences in the first half of this year, approximately half were youths. In this same period, about 40% of the 1,890 victims of handphone-related offences were youths.

Members will agree that such opportunistic crimes can be prevented if the victims had taken more care in safeguarding their properties. I urge Singaporeans to cooperate with the Police and help to prevent such crimes.

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