Gambling debts drove freelance Malaysian watch repairman to pawn his boss’s $42,000 Rolex luxury watches, betraying his trust

SINGAPORE: A Malaysian freelance repairman pawned three Rolex watches worth $42,000 belonging to his boss to get cash for his gambling debts. His crime came to light when the pawn shop owner alerted the luxury watch shop owner.

Case details of this report revealed that the 36-year-old Malaysian national was a permanent resident of Singapore at the time of the incident. As reported by Shin Min Daily News, the suspect was working as a freelancer at a luxury shop to repair expensive watches. 

It was reported that the suspect is accused of taking three Rolex watches on February 14, 2023, November 9, 2023, and November 11, 2023, amounting to HK$4,000, HK$ 18,000, and HK$20,000, respectively. Further investigations revealed that the suspect took the watches to a pawn shop in Toa Payoh to pawn them for cash.

However, on December 10, 2023, the pawn shop owner informed the luxury watch shop owner that the suspect had brought the shop’s watches to him, which prompted the watch shop owner to question the suspect. He then signed a confession on the spot,  admitting to the crime. With this, the watch shop owner called the police. 

The suspect recently revealed that this case had been weighing heavily on his mind for the past three years, and that he admitted that this has caused problems with his relationship with his family. Now, he hopes that the case will be resolved so that he can tell his family the results. 

“This is the most basic thing a son can do,” the suspect claimed. 

For his crime, the judge sentenced the suspect to four months in prison and granted him an extension to begin serving his sentence on October 22.

In other news, a Singaporean man thought that he was in a serious relationship with a Malaysian woman for seven years.  However, the woman married someone else, and he believed that he was misled by the woman throughout the years they were together. 

Due to this, the man filed a lawsuit to recover all of his ‘relationship expenses’, amounting to more than S$100,000.

Read more about the news story here.