ANN/THE STAR – A man was charged with theft yesterday for allegedly stealing a credit card and cash in various currencies, totalling over SDG200 (USD150) from another passenger on a Scoot flight.
Zhang Kun, a 51-year-old Chinese national, is accused of taking the items during a Singapore-bound flight from Kuala Lumpur around midnight on March 17.
However, yesterday Zhang pleaded not guilty to the charge and requested proof of the alleged offence. His pre-trial conference is scheduled for March 27.
According to police, Zhang is said to have taken the victim’s bag from an overhead compartment while the victim was not at his seat. After rummaging through the bag, Zhang allegedly took the cash and credit card before returning the bag to the compartment.
An eyewitness, suspecting Zhang of theft, alerted the victim, who subsequently discovered that his cash and credit card were missing.
After the aircraft landed at Changi Airport, the victim, based on the description provided by the witness, managed to locate Zhang in the transit area and called the police. Officers arrested Zhang shortly after.
This incident adds to a growing number of theft cases targeting passengers on flights. On February 25, another Chinese national, Zhang Youqi, 30, was sentenced to eight months in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing from a fellow passenger on a Scoot flight from South Korea to Singapore. Zhang Youqi had taken USD885 from the victim’s bag after spotting the woman with a branded haversack. He was caught when he attempted to return the bag to an overhead compartment.
In one of the most significant cases of theft on a flight, another Chinese national, Peng Hui, 54, was sentenced to 30 months in jail in June 2024 after stealing about SGD120,000 in cash from a Singaporean jeweller on a Singapore Airlines flight in March 2024. Peng had pleaded guilty to four charges, including theft. The jeweller had been returning from trade fairs in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
