Jail for man who agreed to commit theft at warehouse containing vape-related items worth over $6m
Lim Zhi Wei also admitted to multiple other unrelated charges including drug consumption, criminal breach of trust.
SINGAPORE – A man who was offered $20,000 to break into a warehouse unit containing confiscated vaping-related items worth over $6.5 million and commit theft was given a jail sentence on July 8.
Court documents stated that Lim Zhi Wei was offered the sum of money by one Chua Wee Ming, 34, to climb into the unit containing more than 540,000 vaping-related items that the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) had seized earlier.
Lim had gone to the warehouse with a friend, Elvin Suriaganandhan, 23, whom he had roped in for the task, at around 3.30pm on March 26, 2024, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicole Teo.
He was conducting surveillance at the property before HSA officers stopped the pair.
Lim, 40, who was the second person to be dealt with in court this week over the plan to steal the items, was sentenced to two years, one month and six weeks' jail, and a fine of $2,400 on July 8.
The Singaporean had pleaded guilty to one count of performing an act that could obstruct the course of justice.
He also admitted to multiple other unrelated charges including drug consumption, criminal breach of trust and allowing his bank account to receive $10,000 from a victim of cheating.
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The first person to be dealt with this week, Chee Wai Yuen, 36, was
sentenced to one year, one month and six weeks' jail on July 7. The cases involving Chua and Elvin are still pending.
Without revealing details, DPP Teo told the court that Chua had earlier imported vaping-related items into Singapore before the HSA seized them.
HSA then stored the goods in the warehouse as they could be used as evidence in offences involving them. Information about the property's location has been redacted from court documents.
The prosecutor added that Chua reached out to Lim on or around March 25, 2024, and enlisted the older man's help to steal the items.
Court documents stated that Lim and Elvin went to the warehouse together at around 3.30pm the next day.
DPP Teo said: '(Lim's) plan was to conduct surveillance to collect information for the execution of the theft that night. Together, they went to the 10th floor, where they saw that the unit...was occupied.
'They...went down to the 9th floor to conduct surveillance. There, they saw an HSA officer. They then went back to the 10th floor.'
HSA officers confronted and stopped them soon after.
In an unrelated case, Lim was in charge of sales at a motorcycle workshop between January and April 2019 when he collected nearly $12,000 in total from 14 customers.
He pocketed the money and used his ill-gotten gains to repay his debts to unlicensed moneylenders. He has since made $1,550 in restitution.
Separately, Lim went on messaging platform Telegram in December 2022 and accessed a chat group called 'Fast Cash Bank Rental'.
He saw an advertisement offering cash for the 'rental' of bank accounts and contacted an unknown person behind the post, who offered him $500 a month for such a service.
The DPP said: 'The accused asked the unknown person if the account rented was going to be used for unlicensed moneylending.
'The unknown person guaranteed to the accused that it would not be used for that purpose, but rather, for online casino-related activities.'
Satisfied with the answer, Lim handed the person details linked to his bank account. More than $436,000, including $10,000 from a victim of cheating, flowed through the account in early 2023.
Lim later went to the warehouse to commit the offence involving the vaping-related items and was arrested on March 26, 2024 before he was
charged in court two days later .
He was out on bail when Central Narcotics Bureau officers arrested him for suspected drug consumption on March 6, 2025. His urine sample was later found to contain traces of methamphetamine.
Lim's bail was set at $30,000 on July 8, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on July 25.
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