Police have arrested a 47 year-old man who is believed to be responsible for several cases of armed robberies involving elderly female victims in various housing estates such as Bedok North, Bedok Reservoir, Eunos, Tampines, Rivervale and Hougang.

In these cases, the suspect would follow the victims into the lifts before robbing them of their cash and gold chains at knife point. One notable modus operandi of the suspect was that he would explain to the victim that he was doing this out of desperation and would either thank or apologise to the victim after robbing her.

Upon receiving the reports, officers from Bedok Police Division conducted extensive inquiries in an effort to apprehend the suspect. The officers also performed stake outs at various locations based on crime pattern analysis.

On 29 June 2010 at about 2:00 pm, alert officers who were conducting a stake out managed to spot a suspect fitting the description provided by the victims at a bus-stop located along Bedok North Street 1. The suspect was eventually arrested when he alighted from a bus at Tampines central. Police also recovered a knife which was believed to have been used in the commission of the offence from him.

The suspect will be charged in Court on 30 June 2010 for an offence of Armed Robbery under Section 397 Penal Code Chapter 224. If convicted, he can be sentenced to a maximum imprisonment term of ten years and caning of not less than 12 strokes.

Commander of Bedok Police Division HQ, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police Teo Chun Ching, commended his officers for their good investigative follow-up leading to the arrest of the suspect, and reiterated that the Police will spare no efforts to track down the perpetrators of such crimes and bring them to justice.