<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published September 5, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Cortina thief moved loot in limo
Ex-supervisor pleads guilty to robbing Cortina of $7.6m in watches; also admits to switching customers' watches, pawning them
By JAMIE LEE
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AFTER stealing 366 watches worth about $7.6 million from the Cortina store, Jerry Ee returned home in a rented limousine arranged before the heist.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>FACING THE MUSIC
Ee, who has been in remand since March, is set to be sentenced on Sept 18</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He rolled into his HDB estate at Jalan Rumah Tinggi, picked up his personal belongings, headed to Woodlands checkpoint with two bags full of stolen timepieces, then took a cab with a friend from Johor Bahru to Thailand.
The details of the infamous Christmas Day heist last year were revealed in a district court yesterday as Ee pleaded guilty to robbing Cortina's Raffles City outlet and four other charges. The remaining 20 charges have been taken into consideration.
Around 9pm, Ee - who had been the store supervisor since April 2007 - returned to the store after all staff had left, disarmed the security alarm and entered the safe with his key.
In under 25 minutes, he grabbed the watches, five new cufflinks and $27,137 in cash, packed the loot into two luggage bags, re-armed the security alarm and left the outlet.
The watches stolen included rare timepieces such as a Patek Philippe 3939 that cost about half-a-million and a set of Vacheron Constantin Les Masques watches that cost nearly the same, Cortina Holding's general manager Jeremy Lim said in an earlier interview.
Other watches taken by Ee - who had been with Cortina for five years - include those from Rolex, Panerai, Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux.
Ee left Singapore that same night at around 10:44pm for Bangkok, where he sold 21 watches for about three million baht (S$126,505).
He then hid in Pattaya for about three months until he surrendered on March 17 to the Singapore police at the embassy in Thailand. He was flown back two days later.
To date, 129 watches and the cufflinks - worth $2.81 million in total - as well as some $11,000 in cash have not been recovered.
Ee has also admitted to switching customers' used watches - which were sent to the store for repairs or servicing - for new watches after he pawned their used timepieces. In one case, the replacement watches included three Patek Philippe pieces priced between about $18,000 and about $54,000.
At the same time, the 36-year-old pleaded guilty to stealing two Rolex watches, valued at $28,664 and $54,948 respectively, in November and December last year and subsequently pawning them at two separate pawn shops. Both watches have been recovered.
After a screening at all pawn shops in Singapore, the police found that Ee had pawned as many as 20 watches. Of these, half were new watches from Cortina, while the other half were used watches belonging to customers who had previously submitted them to the store.
He has also been charged for leaving the country with the stolen goods.
Ee, who has been in remand since March, will be sentenced on Sept 18. He faces a jail term of at least 15 years and fines for each of the four criminal breach of trust charges.
For the money laundering charge alone, Ee can be fined up to half-a-million and jailed up to seven years.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Cortina thief moved loot in limo
Ex-supervisor pleads guilty to robbing Cortina of $7.6m in watches; also admits to switching customers' watches, pawning them
By JAMIE LEE
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>AFTER stealing 366 watches worth about $7.6 million from the Cortina store, Jerry Ee returned home in a rented limousine arranged before the heist.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>FACING THE MUSICEe, who has been in remand since March, is set to be sentenced on Sept 18</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He rolled into his HDB estate at Jalan Rumah Tinggi, picked up his personal belongings, headed to Woodlands checkpoint with two bags full of stolen timepieces, then took a cab with a friend from Johor Bahru to Thailand.
The details of the infamous Christmas Day heist last year were revealed in a district court yesterday as Ee pleaded guilty to robbing Cortina's Raffles City outlet and four other charges. The remaining 20 charges have been taken into consideration.
Around 9pm, Ee - who had been the store supervisor since April 2007 - returned to the store after all staff had left, disarmed the security alarm and entered the safe with his key.
In under 25 minutes, he grabbed the watches, five new cufflinks and $27,137 in cash, packed the loot into two luggage bags, re-armed the security alarm and left the outlet.
The watches stolen included rare timepieces such as a Patek Philippe 3939 that cost about half-a-million and a set of Vacheron Constantin Les Masques watches that cost nearly the same, Cortina Holding's general manager Jeremy Lim said in an earlier interview.
Other watches taken by Ee - who had been with Cortina for five years - include those from Rolex, Panerai, Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux.
Ee left Singapore that same night at around 10:44pm for Bangkok, where he sold 21 watches for about three million baht (S$126,505).
He then hid in Pattaya for about three months until he surrendered on March 17 to the Singapore police at the embassy in Thailand. He was flown back two days later.
To date, 129 watches and the cufflinks - worth $2.81 million in total - as well as some $11,000 in cash have not been recovered.
Ee has also admitted to switching customers' used watches - which were sent to the store for repairs or servicing - for new watches after he pawned their used timepieces. In one case, the replacement watches included three Patek Philippe pieces priced between about $18,000 and about $54,000.
At the same time, the 36-year-old pleaded guilty to stealing two Rolex watches, valued at $28,664 and $54,948 respectively, in November and December last year and subsequently pawning them at two separate pawn shops. Both watches have been recovered.
After a screening at all pawn shops in Singapore, the police found that Ee had pawned as many as 20 watches. Of these, half were new watches from Cortina, while the other half were used watches belonging to customers who had previously submitted them to the store.
He has also been charged for leaving the country with the stolen goods.
Ee, who has been in remand since March, will be sentenced on Sept 18. He faces a jail term of at least 15 years and fines for each of the four criminal breach of trust charges.
For the money laundering charge alone, Ee can be fined up to half-a-million and jailed up to seven years.
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