A debt-ridden Australian restauranteur accused of robbing a money lender in Singapore has escaped being caned after pleading guilty to a reduced charge — as the dire financial woes that led to his life spiralling are revealed.
Jose Manuel Pacheco, 40, stole $6000 from an Accredit outlet, in the Tampines District, on June 3 last year after threatening a female clerk at knife-point.
He fled but was arrested a short time later after detectives spotted him loitering nearby.
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Pacheco, who has spent the past few years managing various restaurants across Asia after migrating to Singapore from Perth, was originally charged with armed robbery.
If he pleaded guilty to that charge, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and received six strokes of the cane.
However, he managed to avoid corporal punishment after his charges were downgraded to theft and criminal intimidation, The Strait Times reports.
After pleading guilty to the lesser offences, he was sentenced on March 7 to one year and four months in jail.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard a mental health evaluation found Pacheco to be suffering from moderate to severe major depressive disorder, which contributed to his offending.
However, the court heard a mental assessment found he was of sound mind at the time of the theft and capable of appreciating the gravity of his actions.
Court documents reveal Pacheco was employed in 2023 as a general food manager of a food and beverage company, working at three of its restaurants and earning $SGD10,000 a month (about $A11,792).
In February 2024, he asked his employer for a loan to repay debts to unlicensed money lenders, with the company agreeing on March 1 to lend him $25,3000 on condition it was paid off via monthly $2000 deductions from his salary.
But just two months later, on May 13, the company discovered more than $9000 was missing from a restaurant he was managing.
Pacheco claimed he had forgotten to deposit the money but, when staff later checked the restaurant’s safe, sealed envelopes containing the store’s earning were empty, court documents state.
After his arrest, Pacheco told detectives he had pocketed the funds from his work between March and May 2024 to repay his debts to unlicensed and licensed money lenders.
Still reeling in debt, he hatched a plan to rob the money lender — with CCTV played in court showing Pacheco, disguised in a mask and cap, entering the Accredit on June 3 and pointing a knife at the female employee.
According to the documents, he then gave her a duffle bag he had brought with him and demanded she fill it with money.
The woman, who was alone in the store at the time, complied with his orders and Pacheco fled the scene.
Police arrived a short time later and noticed Pacheco, who matched the clerk’s description, sitting on a nearby deck watching investigators.
He admitted to robbing the store and was arrested, with detectives discovering him in possession of a knife and $6095 cash in a duffle bag.
Pacheco later told detectives he “needed money desperately” to repay his debts.
In court last month, his lawyer Azri Imran Tan said Pacheco had fallen victim to predatory behaviours of loan sharks.
“Our client had taken loans of between $2000 and $3000 from five loan sharks. While the principal sums had been repaid, the said loan sharks continued to demand illegal interest on the same, with his ‘debt’ ballooning to over $30,000,” Tan said.
Tan said Pacheco had faced “significant and unrelenting harassment” as the loan sharks texted and called him daily, and made threats towards him and his family.
Tan said his debts were due on the day of the robbery and he had no way of settling them.
Aside from the Tampines money heist charges, Pacheco also pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust in relation to the misappropriation of funds from his workplace.
The court heard he has not made any restitutions to his former employer.
Under his sentence, which collectively applies to all three charges, Pacheco will be eligible for release in July 2026.
Caning, an excruciatingly painful and injury-inducing punishment that involves being struck on the bare buttocks at speed with a thin rattan cane, is a widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore for certain serious offences.
The punishment, which is typically reserved for healthy men aged 18 to 50, takes place at prisons by specially trained officers and is always ordered in addition to a prison sentence.
The practice, which is also common in other South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, remains controversial — with critics arguing it is cruel and inhumane while advocates champion its use as a strong deterrent against crime.
Partly due to its strict laws and harsh penalties, Singapore has low crime rates and is considered one of the safest countries in the world.
