Jobless man breaks into sister's house to steal $340,000 watches

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The New Paper
Wednesday, Jun 29, 2016

He lived with his family in a posh house in Melrose Drive near Braddell Road.

But last year, Alex Yeo, now 32, betrayed his loved ones' trust.

He stole from his father.

He also broke into his younger sister's home several houses away along the same street and stole three luxury Swiss watches.

The Richard Mille timepieces cost $340,000 in total - more than the price of some resale three-room HDB flats here. According to Forbes, some Richard Mille watches can cost more than $1 million.

The court heard that in 2014, he also stole two watches, together valued at $38,000, from his sister's boyfriend, who also lived with the family.

Yeo, who is jobless, was jailed for 2½ years last week after pleading guilty to four counts of theft and one count of housebreaking with theft.

He started his crime spree in December 2014, when he stole the two watches - a Rolex and an Audemars Piguet - from his sister's boyfriend.

He went into the boyfriend's bedroom and helped himself to the watches, which he then pawned for cash.

The money was used for his personal expenses and the watches were never recovered.

The following year, on three occasions between May 1 and 3, Yeo used an ATM card belonging to his father, Mr Yeo Siew Chuan, and withdrew cash totalling $3,188.04.

POLICE REPORT

Each time, he illegally took out $1,062.68 from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China account.

The elder Mr Yeo, 56, made a police report about two months later after noticing that there were several withdrawals from the account which he had not made.

On Sept 13 last year, at around 8.30am, Yeo's sister, Ms Adeline Yeo, 28, left home to go on a holiday.

About three hours later, Yeo climbed over the side perimeter wall of the property and entered her home. He made his way to the master bedroom on the third storey and helped himself to the three Richard Mille watches.

He then left the premises through a gate at the front entrance.

After pawning the watches at a Bedok Central pawnshop, Yeo used the money to pay for items including accommodation at a Resorts World Sentosa hotel.

Ms Yeo discovered the watches were missing when she returned home on Sept 17.

She called the police at around 2.20am the next day and Yeo was later arrested.

The court heard that the Richard Mille watches have since been recovered.

For housebreaking with theft, Yeo could have been jailed up to 10 years.

For stealing the watches belonging to his sister's boyfriend, he could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.