Man jailed for stealing flatmate's $2,500 Rolex watch to fund trip to Indonesia
A man who stole his roommate's Rolex in order to finance a trip to Indonesia has been sentenced to 10 months' jail.
Ge Qinfeng (transliteration), 45, was sentenced on Dec 17 after pleading guilty to three counts of deception and theft.
Another seven charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Missing Rolex prompts police report
According to Shin Min Daily News, court documents revealed that a police report about the missing watch was made on Dec 3, 2024.
The owner of the watch, 71-year-old Huang, was living in the same flat as Ge when he realised that the Rolex had vanished from his bedside drawer.
After asking his flatmates about the matter — including Ge, who said he knew nothing about it - Huang eventually called the police to report his missing watch.
During police investigations, Huang said that he purchased the watch more than 30 years ago and could not recall its original price.
However, he had pawned it many years ago and redeemed it for the same amount a few months later. This allowed him to obtain the watch's serial number, and its value was estimated at around $2,500.
Police later discovered that a Rolex watch with the same serial number had been pawned for $900 at a shop on Dec 4. It was then that Ge admitted he had stolen and pawned the watch.
Ge said he urgently needed money to travel to Indonesia and had desperately requested the pawnshop to give him the "lowest price".
He also passed the pawn ticket to a friend. However, the watch has not been retrieved from the pawnshop.
Long record of crimes
This was not Ge's first offence. He was previously convicted of cheating in order to buy alcohol in a nightclub, as well as stealing a 77-year-old man's phone on Pulau Ubin .
Due to Ge's extensive criminal record, and the fact that the latest offence was committed while on parole, the prosecution asked for a heavier sentence.
He was then sentenced to 10 months' jail, with an additional 11 days added for reoffending while on parole.
