SINGAPORE COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM PRIVATE EDUCATION CENTRE The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper News

PICKY thieves have led one private education centre to believe that industrial espionage might be the motive for a recent break-in.

Early this week, three of the CES group's computers - containing the personal details and contacts of its 30,000 students - were stolen from its Eu Tong Sen Street office.

Surprisingly, 10 other computers in the same location, some of them newer than the stolen items, and other expensive equipment like scanners were left untouched.

BUSINESS REASONS?

The thieves' specific choices have led CES group chairman Desmond Lim, 35, to suspect that they could have been looking for the information stored in these computers for business reasons.

'They could be potential customers for them,' he said of the students.

And the thieves seemed to know what they were doing. They took one computer from the administration room and the other two from the accounts department.

And while the computer stolen from the administration room might have been the oldest, it was also the only one with all the students' data, said Camford Business School principal Indra Padmakumara, 30, whose school is part of the CES group.

The other three computers in that room were not taken, she said. Nor were they tampered with.

The door to Mr Lim's room was forced open, although a brand new projector, a digital camera and a box full of coins, all lying within plain view, were not taken.

The CES Group has some 40branches in Singapore and Malaysia, and its schools include those under the Camford, Cambridge Language School and Pusat Bahasa Titian Jaya banners.

Police are investigating the break-in, which happened sometime on Sunday night or Monday morning.

The theft was discovered by two of the school's operations and administration staff.

Miss Law Laiping, 20, said she and a colleague had locked up the premises on Sunday night. When they came to work at 9.35am on Monday, they noticed that the chain on the front door was missing.

They alerted a security guard and found the drawers in the administration room broken into and a computer missing.

Mr Lim said the group's main business since 1997 has been language schools, an increasingly competitive business. Its school here also offers business courses.

'It is very competitive here. And even more so in Malaysia,' said Mr Lim.

When pressed, he revealed that the group made about $80million in sales last year.

Most of its students are working adults from Malaysia and China.

Miss LM Chu, 25, a part-time student from China enrolled in the school's English course, is worried her personal details may fall into the wrong hands.

Police spokesman Lim Tung Li said investigations are on.

Ms Indra said the school has since installed a burglar alarm and is putting in a CCTV