THE fate of a 26-year-old kleptomaniac, who has landed time and again in court for shoplifting, continues to hang in the balance, as an appeal judge weighs the question of whether or not she should be sent to prison.
The case at hand is that of Goh Lee Yin, who was given her third chance in May when a district judge jailed her for a day and fined her $8,000 for stealing more than $2,000 of luxury bags while she was on probation for past offences.
The prosecution appealed, arguing that Goh, a computer sciences graduate now doing transcribing and accounts work, should spend a longer time in jail.
The appeal was in July but Justice Rajah wanted to hear further psychiatric evidence. Among the questions he asked: How prevalent is the problem of kleptomania - an irresistable urge to steal - among the population?
Dr Stephen Phang of the Institute of Mental Health on Thursday said no one really knows.
Internationally, he said, figures of between 0.6 per cent to 4 per cent have been cited in psychiatric texts.
There are no numbers for Singapore, but he reckoned about 1 per cent of nabbed shoplifters have the disorder.
A typical feature of kleptomaniacs is that they steal items of little value, and Dr Phang said that out of the four cases he had seen, Goh's was the most difficult to diagnose - the things she stole were not trivial.
Goh was not a 'pure' kleptomaniac, he said. 'With some diffidence, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.'
Dr Phang said he did not think that a 'short stay in a closed and structured environment' - as recommended by Goh's probation officer - would affect her chances of getting better.
However, Dr Tan Chue Tin, who has been treating Goh since 2004, disagreed, saying that this would set back her treatment.
Goh was first sentenced to 21/2 months' jail for shoplifting in August 2005. On her appeal, former chief justice Yong Pung How placed her on a strict probation regime for 24 months.
While awaiting the outcome of her appeal, Goh stole some costume jewellery but was let off the hook. However, her stealing spree of Coach and Louis Vuitton bags last November landed her in the dock again.
On Thursday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lau Wing Yum pointed out that despite medical treatment, counselling and an 'army of caregivers', Goh lapsed back into crime.
When Justice Rajah said that she was not a danger to society, the DPP replied: 'I would say that she is a danger to the retailing industry.'
Justice Rajah is likely to take at least a month before he delivers his decision.
