SINGAPORE, July 20 — A man took part in a heist along with three others to steal S$350,000 in cash by pretending to be cryptocurrency sellers.

On Thursday (July 19), Tobias Tan Wei An, one of the four involved in the conspiracy, pleaded guilty to five charges: One of engaging in a conspiracy to commit theft, two of breaking a police supervision order, one of driving without a licence and one of driving without insurance.

The 25-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to two years and six-and-a-half months' jail and a fine of S$700 in default of two days' imprisonment.

He is also disqualified from having a driving licence for two years after his release.

Three similar charges of breaking a police supervision order were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The other men who worked with Tan were:

• Darren Lim Jun Hao, a 24-year-old Singaporean• Nguyen Nhut Anh, an 18-year-old Vietnamese• Marc Alexander Chua Kai Xuan

Court documents did not state Chua’s age or nationality, and he is still at large. A police gazette has been issued for his arrest.

Nguyen is set to plead guilty on July 31. Lim was convicted and sentenced on April 5 to 20 months' jail.

The heist

Sometime in September last year, Chua told Tan, Lim and Nguyen that he was planning to stage a “heist”.

The plan was to sell cryptocurrency to a buyer for S$350,000, and after they had received the money, they would flee.

Later, someone from the group posted an advertisement on a Telegram chat group called "CryptoSGOTC", saying that he was selling USDT, a cryptocurrency also known as Tether.On the morning of Sept 29, they found their target: A 35-year-old man named in court documents as "KSH".

The man contacted Chua, who said that the exchange rate was S$1 to USDT 1.368.

KSH said that he was interested in exchanging S$350,000 into USDT.

Chua told KSH that he would receive USDT 255,847.953 in exchange for S$350,000.

The victim agreed to this.

Chua then arranged to meet KSH in Ang Mo Kim at about noon to exchange the USDT for cash.

However, it was Lim who would later drive to the meeting location along with Nguyen, while Chua and Tan waited at Punggol Point.

At about 11.40am, the victim arrived at the location, carrying a blue-coloured bag containing S$350,000 in cash.

As KSH approached Lim’s car, Nguyen alighted to meet him while Lim stayed in the driver’s seat.

Nguyen then told the victim to place the money in the car boot.

Nguyen then removed a stack of cash and pretended to count the money.

However, seconds later, he suddenly slammed the car boot down and fled. At the same time, Lim drove off.

KSH tried to grab hold of the fleeing car but failed to do so. He later discovered that the seller had deleted the Telegram account and could not be contacted.

The victim made a police report on the same day at 12.46pm.

After fleeing the scene, Lim drove to Punggol Point to meet Chua and Tan.

Tan placed the bag of money in Chua’s car boot, and the trio left.

At 2pm, Lim took a taxi with Tan to Paragon mall along Orchard Road, where they shopped with the stolen money.

Both men were arrested on the same day at 5.45pm.

Court documents stated that Tan claimed he did not receive any money from Chua for his involvement in the conspiracy.

The stolen cash of S$350,000 was not recovered and no restitution was made.

For abetting theft, Tan could have been jailed for up to three years or fined, or both.