SINGAPORE – Singapore said on Monday it was seeking to extradite a Canadian man suspected of a rare bank robbery in the city-state, after he was detained by authorities in Britain last week.

The suspect, David James Roach, allegedly stole $30,000 from a Standard Chartered bank branch in July 2016, before fleeing to Thailand where he was arrested.

After serving a prison sentence for criminal offences in Thailand, Roach was deported and arrived in London on Jan. 11, where he was detained by British authorities, Singapore’s Attorney General’s Chambers and the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.

“We sought the assistance of the UK authorities to arrest Roach, with a view to his eventual extradition to Singapore,” they said.

“We are working with the UK authorities to commence the extradition proceedings.” The rare bank robbery in Singapore sparked a flurry of debate about whether the country has grown too complacent about security.

A senior official in Thailand’s Immigration Bureau, Major General Choochat Thareechat, said Roach had been deported last week, but to Canada, not to Britain.

He declined to comment when asked about Roach’s travel arrangements after leaving Thailand.

A total of eight women were arrested during a six-hour joint enforcement operation by the police and Central Narcotics Bureau last Thursday (Jan 11).

During the operation, three women were arrested for appearing nude in a public place. Out of the three, two were also arrested for employment and immigration related offences. 

In addition, five women were arrested for suspected drug-related offences. Three public entertainment outlets were also found to have breached the Public Entertainment Licensing conditions.

Investigations against the suspects are ongoing, said the police.

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SINGAPORE – A Singapore court on Monday filed additional charges against nine men accused in a large-scale oil theft at Shell’s biggest refinery, the latest development in an extensive investigation in the city-state.

The nine Singaporean men, eight of whom were employees of the Singapore subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, faced initial charges in court last week alongside two Vietnamese nationals, who are due at court on Tuesday.

At least one additional charge was brought against each of the Singaporean men on Monday, court documents showed.

Charges against three other men on Saturday accused people at Sentek Marine & Trading Ptem, one of Singapore’s biggest marine fuel suppliers, of participating in the scheme, which involves incidents going back months.

The public prosecutor, Stephanie Chew, said on Monday the three men charged on Saturday were not part of an initial 17 the police arrested early last week, bringing the total number of known arrests in relation to the case to 20. Chew would not comment on the remaining six arrested who are yet to be charged.

The Singapore subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc first contacted the authorities in August 2017 about theft at its Pulau Bukom industrial site, just south of the country’s main island.

Police have seized millions of dollars in cash and a small tanker in the sting operation involving simultaneous raids across Singapore, one of the world’s most important oil trading centres and a major refinery hub.

Experts say illicit oil trading is widespread in Southeast Asia, where stolen fuel is sold across the region, often offloaded directly into trucks or tanks at small harbours away from oil terminals.

This is the second high-profile case of wrongdoing at companies in Singapore to hit headlines in recent weeks. In December, Keppel Corporation Ltd’s KPLM.SI rig-building business agreed to pay more than $422 million to resolve charges it had bribed Brazilian officials.

Residents of various HDB flats across Singapore have experienced cracking floor tiles over the last few days, with cases reported at Toa Payoh, Fernvale, and Woodlands.

Stomp contributor Bala, who lives at Block 407B Fernvale Road, was watching television in his living room on Sunday (Jan 14) night when he started hearing a ‘popping’ sound coming from his floor.

At first, he thought that the noise was coming from the unit below his.

Concerned about the sound, he went down to warn his neighbour.

As they were talking, the next-door resident overheard their conversation and told them that he too heard the ‘popping’ sounds and there was nothing to worry about.

Bala then went back to his house but the sounds became increasingly louder.

It went on for about three to four minutes, as the tiles on the floor started ‘swelling’, before cracking.

Bala said : “My children were all panicking. They thought the whole ceiling was going to come down. I have never encountered this before.”

Bala contacted the Ang Mo Kio Town Council the following morning (Jan 15) and also called the estate manager who visited his unit to survey the damage.

He added: “She (the estate manager) said that she will speak to a contractor about the tiles. She got workers to help us clear the broken tiles.

“The broken tiles have sharp edges so they can be dangerous. In the meantime, there are parts of the floor which are bare.”

Stomp contributor Eve also encountered the same problem in her flat at Woodlands Drive 75.

She told Stomp that she and her husband were talking to a neighbour about their cracked floor tiles on Sunday (Jan 14) afternoon.

After the discussion, the couple headed back to their living room and started hearing a cracking sound.

It lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes and became progressively louder.

Eve said: “I was walking to the kitchen when the tiles ballooned and then burst.

“The sounds were quite soft at first. We realised later it was the sound of the tiles getting detached from the floor.”

After the incident, Eve spoke to her neighbour and discovered that they were not the only ones affected.

According to Eve, over 12 units in the area were affected and residents have since formed a WhatsApp group.

Upon inspecting some discarded tiles from the units, they realised that some of the tiles had only been partially glued.

Said Eve: “We have arranged to meet the MP (Member of Parliament) tonight. Most of the residents here are second-hand owners, so we don’t know when the warranty will end.

“All these could be due to poor workmanship.

“My house’s tiles were done through an HDB-approved contractor.”

Stomp contributor Shui also took pictures of a pile of shattered tiles at the corridor of his block in Toa Payoh.

Shui said: “Tiles falling apart! Please be careful.”

Stomp has contacted the relevant authorities for more details on the incidents.

SINGAPORE – The head of Singapore’s central bank said on Monday he hoped the technologies underpinning cryptocurrencies such as blockchain would not be undermined by an eventual crash in the digital money.

Singapore has been positioning itself as a hub for fintech – or financial technology – but has urged “extreme caution” about buying cryptocurrencies.

“I do hope when the fever has gone away, when the crash has happened, it will not undermine the much deeper, and more meaningful technology associated with digital currencies and blockchain,” said Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Menon added that he would not rule out the possibility of the MAS issuing a cryptocurrency directly to the public but that he was not sure it was a good idea.