by Khuswant Singh
FOUR Chilean nationals who came here as tourists and were issued month-long social visit passes will now be here far longer. Each was jailed a year for theft by a district court on Wednesday.
When they pleaded guilty on March 31 earlier this year, they admitted to being members of a foreign crime syndicate.
The court then heard that Claudio Ivan Cuevas Osorio, 38, Cristian Jerardo Pina Lemunir, 29, Cristian Eduardo Criado Ordonez, 34, and Jean Pierre Silva Rebolledo, 31, were to post the stolen items back to Chile.
They had arrived here in mid-March and checked into Lai Ming Hotel Cosmoland in Geylang Road. They would stalk shopping malls, foodcourts and restaurants in Orchard Road and Harbourfront, targeting those who hung their handbags on chairs and those who placed their cellphones and laptops on tables and nearby chairs. Within a week, they had amassed nearly $10,000 worth of loot.
When police tracked them down on March 21, a postal receipt led to the discovery of four parcels at the Geylang SingPost office. The boxes were packed with 16 mobile phones, nine cameras, three laptops, two media players, four branded handbags and several credit cards. More stolen items were recovered from their rooms.