SINGAPORE: A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty on Monday (May 4) to setting fire to a flat that belonged to an alleged scammer.

Vellu Pillai P Sivakkumar, a Malaysian, pleaded guilty to one charge of committing mischief by fire with intent to cause damage to property. A second charge of wrongfully confining the occupants in the unit will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

The victim, a 41-year-old Singaporean man, was living in the unit with his wife, his two young children aged three and nine, his sister and his parents.

According to court documents, the victim had run into financial difficulties before the incident after owing money to several people. He had allegedly scammed several people, who then demanded he repay the monies lost with interest.

The victim received threats from those people, although they could not be identified during the course of the investigation.

He also brought up his debts and threats received from his creditors, but was unsure if the fire set to his unit was a result of those debts.

The victim is currently under investigation for the alleged scamming offences.

WHAT HAPPENED

Sivakkumar, who lived in Johor Bahru, was facing financial difficulties in late 2023 and had asked friends in Malaysia for odd jobs.

In late November 2023, he received a text message from an unknown person, offering him a job to lock the door of a housing unit and set it on fire.

Sivakkumar initially refused the offer but agreed to the terms after he was promised S$2,500 (US$1,960) in exchange for completing the task. He was also told that he would be given a S$400 deposit.

The next day, Sivakkumar met up with an unknown man who handed him an envelope with the deposit. Several days later, the accused received details on which unit he was to set fire to. To prepare for the job, Sivakkumar bought a bicycle lock that he can use to lock the unit.

In the early hours of Dec 8, 2023, Sivakkumar siphoned petrol from his motorcycle into an empty water bottle before heading to a block near the victim's. He changed his clothes and put on a mask to hide his face.

He proceeded to the victim's unit with the bicycle lock he bought, the bottled petrol and an umbrella. At about 4.25am, he opened the umbrella while ascending the last few stairs in another attempt to mask his face.

Once he reached the unit and verified it, Sivakkumar locked the gate with the bicycle lock to prevent the occupants from leaving. He then splashed petrol over the door and gate and set it ablaze.

The fire ignited so fast that the accused himself was taken aback and ran a few steps back to avoid it, the court documents read. He then took a photo of the burning door and sent it to the man who assigned him the job before leaving the scene.

The victim's father came to know of the fire just before 4.42am, when he woke up to use the toilet. He smelt a burning odour and heard a noise that sounded like a "loud explosion". Upon seeing that the house door was on fire, he woke the rest of his family members up.

The victim's wife checked the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage captured by a camera outside her unit and saw what had happened. She then called the police for assistance, pointing out that the fire had died down but the house door was burnt.

Officers from the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived at the scene and safely brought out the family members.

No one suffered injuries. However, there were scorch marks on the door and floor of the unit. The digital locks on the door and gate were also damaged, with repair costs amounting to about S$4,000, according to the court documents.

Meanwhile, the accused departed Singapore and returned to Johor Bahru the same day at about 5.10am. He remained there for the entire duration of the investigations.

Sivakkumar was arrested on Sep 4, 2025. He surrendered to Malaysian police, who then handed him over to the SPF on the same day at the Woodlands Checkpoint. He was produced to court on Sep 6, 2025 and has been in remand since.

Sivakkumar will return to court for sentencing on May 22. For mischief by fire, he could be jailed for up to seven years and fined.