Pleasure turned to shock for a newlywed couple in Singapore when a thief took off with practically S$50,000 ($39,083; £28,705) value of purple envelopes from their wedding ceremony reception.
The offender, Lee Yi Wei, who later gambled the cash away, was sentenced to a 12 months in jail on Tuesday, and ordered to compensate the couple. His jail time period might be prolonged by 100 days if he’s unable to pay the cash again.
The 36-year-old used to serve tables on the resort the place the marriage was held and was aware of its structure, a Singapore court docket heard.
In lots of Asian cultures, wedding ceremony company sometimes give newlyweds cash, usually in red envelopes, as an indication of excellent luck.
These envelopes are normally slotted into massive packing containers which can be positioned at a clearly demarcated desk that company will move by earlier than getting into the marriage corridor.
Lee, who was not a visitor invited to the April wedding ceremony, had made off with two such packing containers whereas they had been unattended. The marriage organiser made a police report after realising the packing containers had been lacking.
The court docket heard that Lee swiftly spent a couple of hundred {dollars} on clothes and gambled away S$12,200 in simply 4 hours.
He then transformed most of his loot into on-line playing credit and positioned 195 bets with these credit over three days.
By the point he was arrested a couple of days later, police managed to grab simply S$3,000 from him.
In Singapore, the follow of gifting purple envelopes to newlyweds has lately been formed by unstated guidelines reminiscent of how a lot to offer, with some {couples} seeing it as a method of serving to them pay for the marriage.
On-line guides, which give data on how a lot to offer relying on the place and when the occasion is held, are printed and up to date yearly.
In lots of Asian cultures, purple envelopes are additionally given out to youngsters or youthful single kinfolk in the course of the Lunar New Year.
