Indian-origin man jailed in Singapore for housebreaking

Singapore: An Indian-origin man was today sentenced to 15 months in jail in Singapore for assisting in a housebreaking plan and theft of items worth 20,392 Singapore dollars.

26-year-old Jeraj Puvaneshen, a former school cricket coach, admitted to helping two of his assistant coaches, both also Indian-origin sisters, with housebreaking in May 2012 and a count of disposing stolen items in December 2009, the Channel News Asia reported.

Two other charges of disposing stolen properties worth more than 5,000 Singapore dollars in May 2012 were taken into consideration for sentencing purposes.

At the time of the offences, Mr Puvaneshen was teaching cricket at St Andrew's Secondary and St Andrew's Junior College, two of premier schools in Singapore.

His assistant coaches - Rajeswari Pasupathy and Vigineswari Pasupathy - found out that one of the student's parents were away and that the 12-year-old was staying at home alone.

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The Pasupathy sisters got Mr Puvaneshen to bring the cricket team boys, including the victim, for a run outside the school at about 2 pm. The two sisters went on to steal over 20,000 Singapore dollars' worth gold jewellery and other items from the boy's house, using keys stolen from his bag.

Prosecution pointed out that Mr Puvaneshen was a teacher and he had abused the trust placed in him.

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District Judge Low Wee Ping agreed with the prosecution's call for a deterrent sentence of 15 months' jail. The sisters were expected in court in for the stealing offences.