Robbery and theft cases involving handphones taken remain a key area of concern for the Police. The number of such cases increased significantly by 1,414 cases, from 3,411 to 4,825 cases in 2005. Handphone crimes increased most notably for theft in dwelling (excluding shop theft) from 832 to 1,119 cases (+287 cases), and for other thefts (from 1,096 to 1,837 cases in 2005). Robbery (from 344 to 488 cases), snatch thefts (from 162 to 283 cases) and cheating and related offences (from 275 to 343 cases) also saw notable increases. The increase in handphone crime may be due to the rise in mobile phone penetration rate9 in Singapore indicating a larger pool of potential victims.
9 Infocommunications Development Authority (IDA), Singapore listed the handphone penetration rate in Singapore as 97.8% in Dec 2005. |
