A 47-year-old man was reportedly charged on Friday (Mar. 8) afternoon with the armed robbery of a Kopitiam food court in Sengkang.

However, it was discovered that the man, Tan Lye Meng, was but an accomplice carrying out the plot of a Kopitiam employee.

Entered management office armed with knife, demanded cash

The robbery took place on Sunday, March 3.

According to a statement from the Singapore Police Force (SPF), a 49-year-old employee of the food court reported at 11:50am that an unknown man armed with a knife entered the food court's management office and demanded money.

The employee claimed that the robber escaped with S$20,000 cash.

The police managed to swiftly identify and arrest Tan on Thursday, March 7.

Something fishy

But follow-up investigations by the police revealed an unexpected turn of events.

According to the SPF statement shared with Mothership, several inconsistencies were uncovered in the unidentified employee's account of events.

In particular, Tan had actually only taken S$6,000 in cash — not S$20,000 as originally claimed by the employee who reported the robbery.

They now believe the employee who reported the incident had in fact masterminded the robbery, and had sought help from Tan to carry out the crime.

The police said another man, a 51-year-old acquaintance of the employee, had introduced Tan as the man for the job.

Both are not yet identified as investigations against them are still ongoing.

Already facing drug charges

If found guilty of armed robbery, Tan can be jailed for between five and 20 years and receive up to 12 strokes of the cane.

According to local media reports on the case, he was already slapped with five drug-related charges prior to this.

Tan is currently remanded at Woodlands Police division and will be back in court on March 15, 2019.

Both the alleged mastermind and his acquaintance have also been arrested.

Top photo (not of the Rivervale Plaza Kopitiam) via Kopitiam Facebook page