Chinese national, 51, jailed 10 months for stealing cash & credit card from fellow Scoot passenger's haversack

A 51-year-old man from China was jailed in Singapore for 10 months on May 28 for stealing from a fellow passenger on a Scoot flight

Zhang Kun pleaded guilty to one charge of theft.

What happened

The offence occurred on Mar. 16 on flight TR465 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore at night.

Zhang was seated three rows behind the victim.

The victim's haversack was in the overhead compartment.

It contained a sling bag and a wallet.

At one point, the victim and his companion left their seats to go to the back of the plane to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Zhang quickly went to the overhead compartment and took the haversack to his own seat.

He took S$200 in cash, RM100 (S$30), and a credit card from the wallet.

He then returned the wallet and haversack to the overhead compartment.

The passenger next to Zhang saw what happened.

Confronted culprit

When the flight landed at Changi Airport Terminal 1, the passenger next to Zhang asked the victim to check his backpack.

When the victim realised that his cash and credit card were gone, the passenger pointed towards Zhang.

The victim confronted Zhang and blocked his credit card.

The victim's companion made a police report at about 12am.

Zhang was witnessed to have made several trips to the toilet before the police arrived.

The police were unable to recover the victim's valuables.

Zhang was arrested later that mornnig.

He did not reveal what he had done to the valuables.

Other accomplices

Zhang had accomplices on the Scoot flight, investigations revealed.

All of them were to be in Singapore for a two-hour layover before flying off to Hong Kong.

Zhang previously denied stealing the items.

He even asked prosecutors to prove he had taken them.

He could have been jailed up to three years, given a fine, or both, for theft.

Passenger gets police award

In March, the police gave the Public Spiritedness Award to the passenger, K Visvanathan, who stepped in to alert the victim and provided "crucial information" that led to the arrest and prosecution of the accused.

"I would like to commend Mr Visvanathan for his public-spiritedness," Commander of Airport Police Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police M Malathi said.

"Such vigilance goes a long way in the swift detection and substantiation of such crimes, which are often challenging to uncover due to their transient nature."

Top photo via Scoot