Business class passenger jailed for 20 months for stealing items worth $78,000 on Dubai-Singapore flight

  A man has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for stealing a fellow passenger’s luggage on a Singapore Airlines flight. 

Liu Ming, 26, boarded the Dubai to Singapore flight on 7 August and attempted to steal items from the bag of an Azerbaijani man and his wife in the business class cabin. 

Liu, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one charge of theft. 

The court was told that Liu boarded the flight specifically with the aim of stealing high-value items from fellow business class passengers. 

Liu was seated five rows in front of an Azerbaijani business class passenger, 52, and one row in front of his victim’s wife. 

In the early hours of 8 August, Liu tried to act after the dinner service had finished and the cabin lights had been dimmed. 

The victim was asleep, but his wife woke up from a short nap to see Liu walking to her husband’s seat and taking the victim’s luggage from the overhead compartment, carrying it back to his seat. 

The victim’s wife confronted the man and alerted the cabin crew after she did not understand his response. After realising he was in trouble, Liu returned to the victim’s seat and replaced the luggage in the compartment from where he had taken it. 

Liu told the cabin crew that he had taken the luggage by mistake after confusing it with his own bag. The cabin crew informed group staff at Changi Airport, and Liu was arrested upon arrival at the airport. 

The victim’s bag contained items with a value exceeding S$100,000 (£57,625). The items included cash and a Huawei laptop worth about S$2,100, 56 cigars worth more than S$5,400, a Chopard watch worth more than S$35,000, and an Audemars Piguet watch worth more than S$51,000. 

No items were found missing, the court heard, because the victim’s wife confronted Liu soon after he took the luggage from the compartment. 

Police said Liu was uncooperative during investigations and continued to deny the theft and maintain that it was a mistake. 

However, Liu’s bag was entirely different from the victim’s bag, differing in both appearance and material. 

Deputy public prosecutor Cheah Wenjie sought up to 20 months in jail. 

“The proliferation of theft offences on board Singapore’s national carrier would tarnish its reputation, and that of Singapore’s tourist industry,” he said. 

The sentence comes after another Chinese man, Zhang Kun, was jailed for 10 months in May for stealing from a fellow passenger on a Scoot flight. 

He was arrested on a Kuala Lumpur to Singapore flight on March 16 for stealing a backpack from a victim from the overhead compartment.