Nine months' jail and three strokes of the cane for Bishan Depot vandalisers

The Straits Times reported that the two Germans who vandalised an MRT train have been sentenced to nine months' jail and three strokes of the cane each. The jail term was backdated to 22^nd November 2014, when they were remanded.

Andreas Von Knorre, 22, and Elton Hinz, 21, were charged with entering Bishan SMRT Depot, a protected place, without authorisation three times in the wee hours of 6^th, 7^th and 8^th November last year.

The pair, who were working in Australia, had arrived in Singapore on 4^th November and stayed at a hotel in Geylang. That day, they bought 12 cans of spray paint from Art Friend in Clementi. They went to a supermarket to buy yellow latex gloves.

The court heard that the duo entered the SMRT premises via a drainage system on 6^th November. They went there again over the next two days and committed vandalism on 8^th November, when they used indelible spray paint to spray graffiti on an SMRT train at the depot along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 between 2:48am and 3:29am.

On 4^th March this year, the two men, who were represented by lawyer Christopher Bridges, pleaded guilty to two charges of entering the protected place, and spraying graffiti on the train carriage. The other trespass charge on 6^th November was taken into consideration.

SMRT suffered total damages of about $13,650. The maximum penalty for vandalism is a fine of $2,000 or three years' jail plus three to eight strokes of the cane. If convicted of entering a protected place, they could be fined up to $1,000 and/or jailed for up to two years on each charge.