Yee Kiee Song, a 76-year-old man, has been convicted nine times since October 1963 for various housebreaking and theft offenses. Following his last crime in 2003, he was sentenced to 20 years of preventive detention.

According to court documents, Yee has spent most of his life in jail since 1969, with no significant time outside prison. However, about a month after his most recent release in November of last year, he reoffended again.

On Thursday (Aug 1), Yee pleaded guilty to two counts of housebreaking and was sentenced to nine years of preventive detention, backdated to his remand on January 2 this year. Preventive detention is a harsh punishment for repeat offenders deemed a persistent threat to the public, with sentences ranging from seven to 20 years. To qualify, an offender must be over 30, have prior imprisonment, and be certified fit for the sentence.

Yee ‘Lacked Remorse’

Yee had been released from his 20-year preventive detention sentence in November of last year. However, by the end of December, he had spent all his savings on beer and daily expenses. In need of money, he decided to break into a coffee shop.

For several days before December 29, Yee observed a coffee shop in Serangoon, noting that most coffee shops in the area had locked back doors that would require force to break in. However, the coffee shop Yee targeted had no such security at the back, though court documents did not specify how he discovered this.

On the early morning of December 29, around 1:30 AM, Yee climbed over the rear wall of the café, which was closed but not locked. He lifted the shutter and entered. At the drinks stall, he found a drawer with cash and took around S$200 and RM$100 (about S$29). He then moved to another stall selling Indian food, where he used utensils to break into a locked drawer, stealing S$6,450 in cash. Yee wrapped the cash in a white cloth and hid it inside a food warmer. However, he forgot to take the money with him when he left.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Suriya Prakash said that Yee later regretted “not taking the S$6,000 due to his carelessness.” At around 1:45 AM, Yee exited the coffee shop the same way he had entered.

He was identified and arrested on January 2 of this year and has been in custody ever since. DPP Suriya, who sought a preventive detention sentence of nine to ten years, pointed out that Yee “has shown no remorse for his crimes.” Since 1969, Yee has spent the majority of his life in prison, often reoffending shortly after release. The prosecutor added that Yee’s immediate relapse into crime after his release last year showed that his prior 20-year sentence had been necessary to protect the public.

While Yee left most of the stolen money behind, the amount he did take was still considered significant. The prosecution acknowledged that, if sentenced to another 20 years, Yee would be 96 upon release, which far exceeds the average life expectancy for men in Singapore.

Yee’s lawyer, Don Tan from Chia S Arul law firm, requested a sentence of about eight and a half years, arguing that this would leave Yee with approximately six months to live after his release based on Singapore’s average life expectancy of 85 years. In sentencing, District Judge Hairul Hakkim deemed a nine-year preventive detention term appropriate, noting that Yee would be just over 85 years old upon release, still below Singapore’s national life expectancy of 85.7 years.

For the housebreaking offenses, Yee could have faced up to 10 years in jail and a fine.