A Robber Jailed By His Mother

Mum begs robber son to return to Singapore

SINGAPORE - After robbing dozens of teenagers, he fled Singapore for Thailand and remained there for more than five years.

He started a new life by marrying Thai woman and having a son, now two, with her.

It was only after his mother flew to Thailand last year to beg him to return home that he decided to come back to face the consequences of his crimes.

In 2006, Chua Peng Hwee, then 18, robbed at least 37 teenagers between Nov 7 and Dec 7, with an accomplice, Kelvin Woo Ming Yang, now 22.

Chua would accuse his victims, all students, of either staring, assaulting him or his brother and talking bad about him.

When they denied his accusations, he told them to settle the matter and led them to quiet locations such as the staircase landings of HDB blocks and shopping malls.

There, Woo would hand him either a chopper or a knife to threaten or hurt his victims with before robbing them of their belongings.

The duo would then sell or pawn some of the stolen items, which included mobile phones and jewellery worth a total of $16,012, of which only $738 was recovered.

Woo was sent to a reformative training centre for the crimes.

Chua was arrested on Dec 8, 2006, when he tried to use one of his victims' identity card to subscribe for a StarHub phone line.

He was supposed to plead guilty in March 2007 but fled to Thailand. A warrant for his arrest was issued when he did not show up in court.

He faced a total of 49 charges, of which 37 were for robbery.

Last Friday, Chua, now 24, was jailed for seven years and given 24 strokes of the cane.

According to his mitigation plea, Chua's wayward ways began at a young age due to neglect from his parents.

His mother owns a coffee shop and his father is a civil servant.

He did not complete his secondary education and said he had committed the crimes as he was young and immature.

Last year, his mother flew to Thailand and told him that she was getting old and would want him at her bedside when she dies.

Chua returned to Singapore on Oct 18 last year and told an officer at immigration that he was giving himself up.