Overstaying Singaporean jailed for 11 years for robbing a bank with air gun

An overstaying Singaporean old man was sentenced to 11 years in prison for robbing a bank with an air gun and attempting to rob a chain drug store.

Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong handed down the sentence at the High Court on Tuesday, a day after Leong How-seng, a 75-year-old Singapore national, pleaded guilty to one count of robbery and one of attempted robbery.

The court has heard that Leong attempted to rob a Mannings store in Prince Edward in July 2020 using a bottle of water to imitate gasoline as a threat to a staff member, but he failed and fled the scene.

In April 2022, Leong robbed HK$14,000 from the Yau Ma Tei branch of the China Construction Bank using a malfunctioning air gun, but was soon arrested by police on the same day.

Yau said the defendant’s use of the air gun, an imitation firearm, resulted in an increase in his sentence, with the starting imprisonment length for the robbery offence at 12 years. The attempted robbery offence starts at five years in jail.

The judge, however, reduced the sentence by 20 percent for Leong’s guilty plea, which came seven days before the trial began, and for his cooperative attitude following his arrest.

Yau ordered the defendant to serve the sentence concurrently, giving him a jail term of 11 years.

According to the defense, Leong came to Hong Kong in the 2000s and overstayed in Hong Kong. He has been living on his savings, and did not get a job or applied for social security aid. 

The defense also said he committed the crimes foolishly because of financial problems and failure to pay rent.

(Jamie Liu)