Bank Robbery @ Holland Village

[the lynx]

I am still amused that this Canadian guy thinks he could just sashay his way in, give the female teller a note that says that it is a robbery, I have a weapeon, give me $30k etc, with all the CCTVs and then take the next flight out of Singapore to Bangkok, and get away with it? Pfft.

[PNGMK]

Link?

[the lynx]

Link?

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/suspect-was-in-bangkok-within-six-hours-of-crime

[PNGMK]

I am still amused that this Canadian guy thinks he could just sashay his way in, give the female teller a note that says that it is a robbery, I have a weapeon, give me $30k etc, with all the CCTVs and then take the next flight out of Singapore to Bangkok, and get away with it? Pfft.

I'm surprised it took him 6 hours to get out and that he didn't go the causeway or ferry route.

[PNGMK]

http://mothership.sg/2016/07/this-is-ho ... ooks-like/

Alleged to be David James Roach.

The 26-year-old is a Canadian who was in Singapore for the first time.

[ecureilx]

http://mothership.sg/2016/07/this-is-how-the-alleged-standard-chartered-bank-robber-looks-like/

Alleged to be David James Roach.

The 26-year-old is a Canadian who was in Singapore for the first time.

If he is given caning, I wonder if the Canadian PM will fight for him .. just .. wondering ......

PS, PNGMK :

According to documents seen by Shin Min, Roach was born in Sydney in 1989 but now holds Canadian citizenship.

[x9200]

I was very sure this could only be attempted by somebody who has no idea what Singapore is. And he succeeded. This perfectly show how we all living in Singapore are actually indoctrinated.

[JR8]

X9^, it's interesting from the perspective of considering where else such a robbery couldn't have succeeded. Added to which, quite why the perp imagined his superficially lunatic plan could work in Singapore of all places.

It's one of the kind of things that come come out of have a corporate 'Enterprise Risk Management' group to periodically measure risks vs impact vs likelihood. Though that requires front-line staff to disclose risks that management are possibly too removed from to already know. Plus even the most junior staff given a green-light to raise any risks they are aware of any kind, known/unknown/thinking out of the box - without fear of repercussions.

If they do have an ERM system in place, and they must, bank robbery might be the kind of issue missed due to complacency. 'The gahment tell us that this is a very low crime country, and we believe them', so why cause trouble at work by raising concerns that suggest crime is a risk that warrants better corporate defence.... Or summink like that

- SCB in HV. That alone is certainly a quite distinctive choice of target for a person who superficially looks like a younger/budget traveller. It'll be interesting to hear how he arrived at any plan that he had behind that strategy.

[x9200]

It looks very much like ERM to me especially that SG is very much into risk and safety management and it all (well, many) in every day practice looks as it could be expected.
But this aspect of conditioning is something different. We are actually made to believe it works. We are made to think you can not fart on the street without your gases being analyses, yet one fool, who was never exposed to the level of invigilation present in Singapore, proves this whole system with zillions of cameras every single place is probably worth nothing (or serves some different goals).

[BBCWatcher]

According to documents seen by Shin Min, Roach was born in Sydney in 1989 but now holds Canadian citizenship.

That's a little tough to parse. According to Wikipedia (for what it's worth), individuals born in Australia on or after August 20, 1986, were born Australian citizens only if at least one parent was an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Mr. Roach may have been born an Australian citizen, but birth in Sydney in 1989 alone is not sufficient evidence of that.

Under current Australian and Canadian law (at least), as far as I can tell, neither country has a problem with dual citizenship. (Before April 4, 2002, Australia had a problem in some cases when one of their citizens acquired a foreign citizenship, but Mr. Roach would have been 12 or 13 when the law changed -- a minor.) Mr. Roach might be a citizen of both countries. Presumably he is identified as "Canadian" because he traveled on a Canadian passport, and that would be rather good evidence he is Canadian. If he is the same individual witnesses alleged to have seen then he may have been described as "Australian" in initial press reports due to his spoken English accent. He may be a citizen of both countries. However, even if so, as I understand it, the governments of Singapore and Thailand are only required to provide him with consular access to Canadian diplomats. In practice they will probably also honor any requests for Australian consular access (if he is a citizen of Australia), but legally they don't have to if he traveled on a Canadian passport.

We'll probably learn more in the coming days and weeks, hopefully.

Update: The Straits Times reports that Mr. Roach has asked for Canadian consular assistance in Thailand, and he is receiving it. Press reports only mention that Mr. Roach was born in Sydney. They imply that he acquired Canadian citizenship at some point after he was born (not from birth), but the press reports do not indicate whether he also has Australian citizenship. As a matter of Australian law, if he acquired Canadian citizenship on or after April 4, 2002, he would still be an Australian citizen (if he was an Australian citizen). I'm not sure what happened if his parent(s) acquired Canadian citizenship after he was born but before April 4, 2002. "To be clarified."

[Barnsley]

I am still amused that this Canadian guy thinks he could just sashay his way in, give the female teller a note that says that it is a robbery, I have a weapeon, give me $30k etc, with all the CCTVs and then take the next flight out of Singapore to Bangkok, and get away with it? Pfft.

The fact that he did do it , doesn't really say a lot for the systems they have in place here does it.

[BBCWatcher]

With the big assumptions that Mr. Roach is the perpetrator, and that there was a crime committed, he didn't "get away with it," did he? He was caught, and the money (less a hamburger or two, perhaps) was recovered.

[PNGMK]

Sometimes I like to idle my time away imagining what BBCW must be like in real life.

[Barnsley]

Sometimes I like to idle my time away imagining what BBCW must be like in real life.

[bgd]

PS, PNGMK :

According to documents seen by Shin Min, Roach was born in Sydney in 1989 but now holds Canadian citizenship.

Just knew there had to be an Australian connection there somewhere, so out of character for a Canadian.

I think Sg did pretty well identifying this guy so quickly. I wonder how they did it? Facial recognition, phone tracking? I guess committing such a crime here is pretty easy given how uncommon it is. The difficult bit is getting away with it.