A man, aged 26, has been apprehended and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday on charges of embezzlement and theft of high-end watches with an estimated combined value of approximately $1.6 million.
According to a statement released by the Singapore Police Force on Sunday (21 May), the individual was employed as a salesperson at a prestigious watch store situated on Orchard Road.
Between September 2022 and May 2023, he reportedly accepted significant sums of money from various individuals with the intention of purchasing luxury watches on their behalf.
Subsequently, it is alleged that the suspect misused the funds entrusted to him and also pilfered a number of luxury watches from the store.
These timepieces were then exchanged for cash at a pawnshop, as revealed by the authorities.
A spokesperson for the police said that following a thorough investigation and subsequent inquiries, law enforcement officers from the Central Division were able to recover 23 luxury watches with an estimated value of $900,000.
The suspect is set to face charges in court for the offence of criminal breach of trust by an employee, as confirmed by the police.
If convicted, he may face a maximum penalty of a fine and up to 15 years of imprisonment.
Similar crimes involving luxury watches
40-year-old Maya Amara Putri, an Indonesian maid who worked for a German couple in Singapore, was caught stealing her employer’s Patek Philippe watch and was sentenced to 21 months and 1 week in prison on 16 May.
She had pleaded guilty to 4 charges including theft by servant and transferring criminal proceeds out of the country, with another 7 charges being considered during her sentencing.
The maid, who has 2 children and a sick mother back in Indonesia, would pawn off her own jewellery and send the money back home when her children needed it.
had allowed a friend to use her work permit to borrow money from loan sharks and she committed the crime to help repay the debt after her friend returned to Indonesia without paying it, resulting in the loan sharks targeting her instead.
According to Channel NewsAsia, sometime in March, Maya spotted her employer’s Patek Philippe watch which was worth about $63,840 in the toilet of their master bedroom, and she then stole it and pawned it away for about $6,000.
Her employers then noticed that the watch was missing and asked Maya, as well as another maid if they knew anything about the missing timepiece.
Maya later admitted to stealing the watch and the police were then called in.
However, the Patek Philippe watch was not the only thing stolen, Maya also stole a gold ring worth about $4,758, a pair of ear studs worth about $5,400, an Omega watch worth about $10,000 and a Rolex watch worth about $20,000.
With the money she received from pawning off the valuable items, she paid the loan sharks via bank transfers as well as sending about $204 back to her son in Indonesia.
The stolen items have since been recovered by the police, although Maya’s employers had to pay $6,800 to the pawn shop to get back the items that Paya pawned to them.