SINGAPORE, May 14 — After watching TikTok videos of people selling Pokemon cards, Fong Jia Wei stole S$593 (RM2,067) worth of the collectable cards.

Fong then sold the cards for S$1,000 to pay off his outstanding personal debts.

Today he was sentenced to 12 months’ supervised probation. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of theft over two boxes of Pokemon cards worth S$482.40.

Another two charges — one for theft of Pokemon cards worth S$110.60 and one for fraudulent possession of property — were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Supervised probation is generally imposed on offenders aged under 21 where it is considered appropriate by the sentencing judge. It allows the offender to remain in society subject to probation conditions such as curfews.

Although Fong was 22 when he committed his crimes, his lawyer argued that probation is an appropriate sentence as he had been "at the cusp of 21 years old” when he committed the crimes.

What happened

According to court documents, Fong was watching videos on social media platform tiktok of people earning money from selling Pokemon cards sometime in January 2023.

As he had to pay off his debts to friends to cover his polytechnic school fees, Fong decided to steal Pokemon cards to sell online.

On May 2, 2023 at about 4.29pm, he stole a box of Pokemon cards worth S$212.40 from a store at Paya Lebar Square along Paya Lebar Road.

Two days later, he stole Pokemon cards from a convenience store at Paya Lebar MRT Station.

A few days later on May 8, Fong visited another convenience store at Commonwealth MRT Station, where he stole another box of Pokemon cards worth S$270.

Two police reports were made on May 4 and May 9, 2023 over Fong’s actions and he was arrested on May 9.

Fong was found with multiple packets of Pokemon cards when arrested. According to court documents, this included a box of 19 unopened packets of Pokemon cards and three opened packets of 11 cards.

Court documents said that the stolen cards sold online could not be recovered. However, Fong paid back the value of the unrecovered items on Oct 3, 2023.

Pay school fees owed

Josephus Tan of Invictus Law Corporation, Fong’s lawyer, told the court earlier that Fong had been in debt as he could not pay his polytechnic school fees.

After completing his studies, Fong owed his school about S$7,000 and could not collect his diploma. However, as he was serving National Service and could not save up enough, he resorted to borrowing from his friends, the lawyer said.

Fong was worried he would lose the friendships as he could not pay them back, so he resorted to stealing, said Tan.

Seeking leniency for Fong, Tan stated that he had shown "genuine remorse” by paying back the value of the cards he stole and was cooperative with the authorities.

Fong was also found suitable for probation as he had a low risk of reoffending and has not gotten into trouble with the law since he was arrested.

The prosecution did not oppose to probation because he had also made restitution and was unlikely to reoffend.

For each count of theft, Fong could have been jailed for up to three years, fined or both. — TODAY