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Singapore jails Canadian bank robber David James Roach – but spares him a caning
- David James Roach robbed US$22,000 from a Standard Chartered branch in 2016 before fleeing to Thailand, where he was jailed for importing stolen cash
- He was later detained in Britain while en route to Canada, and extradited to Singapore under the condition that he not face corporal punishment
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Agence France-Pressein Singapore
A Canadian man who staged a rare bank robbery in Singapore has been sentenced to five years in jail, but will escape a caning because of an agreement that allowed his extradition.
David James Roach, who robbed a Standard Chartered Bank branch in 2016, was extradited to Singapore last year from Britain after the city state offered assurances he would not be flogged.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of bank robbery and another charge of money laundering for taking the stolen money out of the country.
A court on Wednesday handed down the jail term and six strokes of the cane – a mandatory punishment in the city state for robbery.
But Singapore’s interior ministry and attorney general’s chambers said they were working “through the necessary procedures to fulfil the assurance given to the UK government” that Roach will be spared caning.
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