SOURCE: The Straits Times

HIS wife knew about his previous criminal record but not about his latest offences – until the police came to arrest him.

“It came as a shock when he was arrested because I thought he had learnt his lesson and had stayed clean,” she said about Muhammed Firdaus Amir Musa, who was jailed for six months yesterday for stealing 12 motorcycles in 2009.

He got a further four months for riding while under disqualification.

The misdeeds of the 26-year-old surveyor, who had similar convictions in 2002 and 2006, came to light after his accomplice Mohammed Nazeer Md Sultan, 22, was nabbed and jailed last year.

In court yesterday, Muhammed Firdaus admitted to stealing 10 motorcycles with the other man, and two on his own.

All the thefts occurred between May and September 2009.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan said the duo targeted multi-storey carparks in Jurong, Bukit Batok, Ghim Moh, Bishan and Hougang.

Using a master key or the blade of a small pair of scissors to start a motorbike, they would take it for a joyride and then abandon it when it ran out of fuel.

All the motorcycles were recovered.

Muhammed Firdaus also rode the stolen bikes while under a three-year driving disqualification that started upon his release from jail in 2008.

Asking the court to impose a lenient sentence, defence counsel S.S. Dhillon said his client had turned over a new leaf after marriage in 2010.

The lawyer said: “He has become a law-abiding citizen, a good husband and a committed father. But he knows he had committed the offences and now has to accept the punishment.”

District Judge John Ng also ordered that Muhammed Firdaus be disqualified from driving all vehicles for five years after his release from prison.

Outside the courtroom, his wife, 26, a nurse who declined to be named, said that she was grateful the jail term was 10 months.

The maximum penalty for theft of a motorcycle is a seven-year jail term and a $10,000 fine.

“I have forgiven him and will wait for his release,” she said.

They had met through friends and had a baby early last year. They are expecting another child in two months.

“It’s a pity the father won’t be able to be at the delivery,” she said.

Muhammed Firdaus had been sent for reformative training for the 2002 offences and jailed four years for robbery and fined $800 for driving while under disqualification in 2006.