Woman, 25 & her girlfriend, 20, set fire outside Canberra flat for S$2,500 payment

A 25-year-old Singaporean woman agreed to set fire to a residential unit at a Housing and Development Board (HDB) block along Canberra Road in exchange for a S$2,500 payment from a Telegram user.

The woman, Alexandria Tammy Lim Xuan Yi, arrived at the HDB estate at around 9pm on Jun. 17, 2024, together with another Singaporean woman, Clara Yip Zi, 20, who was her girlfriend at the time.

After conducting a trial at the multi-storey car park, the pair managed to start a fire at around 10pm by lighting up a cloth with Lim's lighter and throwing it outside the unit.

When the fire spread, Lim and Yip took turns recording themselves setting fire to the exterior of the unit before returning home and sending the videos to the Telegram user.

At around 10:30pm, the unit's resident, who was trying to leave, saw the fire and extinguished it quickly before alerting the police.

Lim and Yip were subsequently arrested the next day as they were about to complete another arson assignment at Hougang tasked by the Telegram user.

Yip initially advised Lim against committing arson

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the agreement between Lim and the Telegram user, whom she referred to as "boss", was reached on Jun. 17 afternoon.

However, court documents did not state the reason why the Telegram user wanted to set fire to the unit.

Initially, Yip advised Lim not to commit arson, but Lim insisted on following through with her plan.

Eventually, Yip changed her mind and decided to follow Lim to complete her task.

The pair had planned to "hit" the unit at 10pm as there would be "a lower chance of getting caught".

Conducted test run at car park

The pair bought two tins of lighter fluid and arrived at the HDB block at around 9pm.

Lim then attempted to light a piece of paper soaked with the lighter liquid as a test run at the multi-storey car park.

When the fire turned out to be very small and extinguished quickly, Lim and Yip walked around the HDB block in search of an alternative comburant.

Upon noticing a black coloured cloth at the void deck, Yip took it and tore it to pieces.

Set fire outside unit

At around 10pm, the pair arrived at the level where the unit targeted was located and noticed that its door was open.

As a result, Lim became afraid and did not want to follow through with their plan.

However, Yip urged her to stick to their plan as "they had gone all the way" to the unit.

Yip then poured the lighter fluid on the cloth and set it on fire with Lim's lighter before throwing it at the unit's front door.

When Lim saw the fire had begun to subside, she went to the unit and poured additional lighter fluid onto the cloth.

Did not get paid

As the fire spread to pairs of slippers outside the unit, Yip and Lim took turns recording themselves setting the outside of the unit on fire.

After they had poured an entire bottle of lighter fluid, they left the block and returned home.

When Yip sent the videos to the "boss" upon reaching home, he did not find their work satisfactory, citing that the footage did not capture the unit number.

He then informed Lim that they would not be paid for this task.

In response, Lim asked "boss" for another arson assignment, to which he replied with another location in Hougang.

The next day, Lim and Yip were on their way to complete the assignment when they were arrested by the police on Jun. 18 afternoon.

Other offences committed by Lim

Investigations into Lim revealed that she had committed various offences before.

Sometime in 2022, Lim's ex-girlfriend approached her on WhatsApp, asking if she wanted to earn money by selling her bank accounts.

For each bank account, Lim's ex-girlfriend offered her S$600 to S$700 in return.

As Lim was unemployed and needed money at the time, she agreed to the deal and sold four bank accounts to her ex-girlfriend.

Besides her online banking username and password, Lim also handed over her ATM (automated teller machine) cards for the accounts to her ex-girlfriend.

When she received OTPs (one-time passwords) to change the contact number and email address for one of her accounts, Lim provided them to her ex-girlfriend as well.

Besides her bank accounts, Lim also sold her Singpass login credentials to her ex-girlfriend sometime in 2023.

Did not receive promised payments

Lim's illegal sale of her bank accounts came to light after a victim lodged a police report on Dec. 20, 2022, stating that he had been cheated in a "friend impersonation" scam.

According to the victim, he was trying to make a PayNow transfer to a phone number linked to Lim's account when his bank notified him that the number had been involved in a scam.

Investigations subsequently found that three of the bank accounts Lim sold had been used to launder scam proceeds, which amounted to over S$148,000.

However, Lim did not receive the payments she had been promised.

Both pleaded guilty to offences

On Jun. 20, Yip was charged with committing mischief by fire and conspiring to commit mischief by fire, according to Today.

She pleaded guilty to the former charge on Aug. 1, and the judge called for probation and reformative training reports before adjourning her sentencing, reported The Straits Times.

Lim faced a total of eight charges, which included committing mischief by fire and abetting unauthorised access to computer material.

On Dec. 16, she was sentenced to 10 months and two weeks in jail after admitting to her offences, reported Shin Min Daily News.

Top image via Shin Min Daily News