'I nearly put everything back' Sat, Nov 12, 2011 | The New Paper By Benson Ang He left Singapore a fugitive from the law, having stolen luxury watches worth more than $7.5 million from his employer. But it was his guilty conscience that brought him back to face the music, he claims in a new book featuring interviews with Changi Prison inmates. Concerned about what would happen to his family, he turned himself in three months later in Thailand, where he had fled to. As the inmates cannot be named in Criminal Intent II, which features 14 stories , he was identified as John. On Christmas Day in 2008, the supervisor at a major watch retailer made off with about 350 watches, cufflinks worth about $17,000 and about $27,000 in cash. He said he had bought a suitcase for his parents for Christmas because "they were always going travelling" and he took it to his workplace. That night, he was tasked with locking up the outlet. It was then that the idea of stealing from his employer struck him, he said. John, who had wanted to escape his gambling debts of more than $200,000, insisted the heist was unplanned. "I thought I should just disappear. But then I thought to myself, why go empty-handed?" he said. So he did the deed, after his colleagues left at 9pm. He had to lock up by 9.15pm, or the company would call to find out what was happening. So he had only 10 minutes to sweep as many watches as he could into the suitcase. I didn't count "I didn't count how many watches I took," he said. "My heart was racing. "At one point, I wanted to put everything back because I was really frightened. What was I doing?" he claimed. He then took a taxi to his flat. Leaving the suitcase in the cab, he told the driver to wait for him and he went up to get his passport. He told his mother and 10-year-old son that his company was sending him on an urgent business trip to Vietnam, and he might be gone for a month or two. He asked the cabby to take him to Johor Baru, where he boarded another taxi to take him to Hatyai in Thailand. The journey took almost 12 hours, during which he ignored several SMSes from his fiancee, who wanted to know where he was. At the Thai-Malaysian border, he again left his loot in the taxi while he cleared immigration and customs. But once he was in his hotel room in Hatyai, he said he broke down. "I was asking myself a lot of questions. Why was I doing this? What would happen to my fiancee, my family, my son? "I wanted so much to call, but I knew that once I did, I would be traced." Knowing that the money he stole would not last long, he travelled to Bangkok, where he sold some watches for about $200,000. He said: "With the watches and the money, I thought I could go into hiding for a very long time. He contacted a friend in Pattaya, who arranged for him to live in a big house near the city. But sleep didn't come easy. "Every night, it was torment...I was debating whether I should return or just keep hiding. With those watches, I could have the money to last me a lifetime and I wouldn't have to work. Thailand, he added, was a big country, and he was sure he would not stand out. "But then I would ask myself if that was what I really wanted, he said, adding that he felt very guilty about abandoning his fiancee, parents and son. It was this guilt that made him surrender, he claimed. He contacted a lawyer in Singapore, someone who had previously helped him. The lawyer flew to Thailand a couple of weeks later and talked John through the consequences of what he had done before advising him to surrender. Said John: "He gave me a lot of space to think. He stayed with me for a few days, and said that he would call the respective authorities if I decided to return." Finally, in March, he turned himself in. John said: "I only felt relief when I touched down in Singapore. And when I was sentenced, I also felt relief because at least I knew I could move on." Later that year, John was jailed for nine years for his crime. The hardest thing he had to do, he said, was to explain to his son that he had fallen foul of the law. John said: "I wrote to him. I explained that I did something I should not have done. And I told him I felt remorse and that I failed him as a dad and that was not right." The boy has since visited him. "At first, he kept to himself, but when I asked if he missed me, he started to cry. Of course, my heart broke." John hopes his story will be a cautionary tale. "We can't run away if we have done something wrong, we must have the courage to face it. Because what you do will harm your family, and it's not worth it." This article was first published in The New Paper.