WHEN construction supervisor Wong Kam Sooi, 43, discovered a compressor missing from his company's Geylang Bahru worksite on Jan 30, he did more than make a police report.

He sent his workers on an island-wide search of warehouses for the 1.3-tonne compressor, which was worth $10,000.

They found it in a Sungei Kadut warehouse.

Police investigations led to the arrest of Nanthakumaran Lokanathan, an odd-job worker, who pleaded guilty to possessing the stolen piece of equipment in a district court last week.

He was jailed 15 months.

The compressor placed at the entrance to the worksite, was used for power drilling and hacking equipment.

Nanthakumaran bought it from an unknown man and then sold it to Pakistani national Abdul Aziz, 30, for an undisclosed sum, along with another stolen compressor and a generator he had obtained from another source.

Nanthakumaran, who then left to work in the United States, was arrested last month, when he returned here to take his mother there.

He had previous offences for possessing stolen property, with the most recent being just two years ago.

The police said there were 30 cases of theft of equipment from construction sites last year.

Checks with four contractors revealed that theft of construction equipment and materials has been on the rise for the last three years.

Find out more in Monday's edition of The Straits Times