In a single afternoon in Bencoolen, a 24-year-old Italian managed to commit what lawyers actually call an "impossible attempt", which is the legal version of trying to pick an empty pocket.
The short version: he set out to cheat a Singapore watch dealer by selling him a fake Rolex GMT Saru, except the watch wasn't fake. It was the real thing. And he's now doing seven months in a Singapore jail because of it.
Here's what went down....The whole saga, reported by Channel News Asia after Monday's sentencing, reads less like a white-collar crime and more like a cautionary tale about buying serious watches from a bloke you kind of know.
Singh picked up the Saru earlier in 2025 from an acquaintance known only as "Matteo", handing over 55,000 euros in cash and a 5,000-euro Cartier bracelet for a piece he thought was worth around 90,000 euros on the resale market.
For those who don't obsess over off-catalogue Rolex, the GMT Saru is one of those hushed-tones references: gem-set, extremely limited, reportedly only around 20 authentic pieces out there. The kind of watch that, if real, makes your year. If fake, makes your lawyer's year.
Singh's mates told him to get it checked. A watch shop had a look and floated the worst-case theory in the off-catalogue Rolex universe, that the case might have been swapped and a genuine serial laser-engraved onto the replacement. At that point, in his head, the watch was cooked. So he did what anyone with questionable judgement and a return flight would do. He decided to palm it off.
On 27 November 2025 he flew into Singapore with friends, planning to flip the Saru and walk out with other Rolexes he could resell in Europe. The next afternoon he rocked up to The Watch Room in a Bencoolen mall with the watch and its warranty card, sat down with the 32-year-old director, and started negotiating.
The mighty SARU
Here's where it gets properly mad. The dealer took one look and pegged the Saru as an off-catalogue Rolex worth around S$120,000. They settled on S$94,700. Singh didn't want a bank transfer. He wanted watches. Specifically, a Rolex Daytona (S$25,200), a Rolex GMT (S$25,400) and a Rolex Submariner (S$44,000). The dealer even threw in an extra S$300 because Singh wasn't getting boxes.
Before the deal closed, the dealer did what any serious retailer does. He kept the warranty card, ran a UV torch over it, checked the lettering, inspected the watch, called his mate in. Everything came back clean. Singh handed over a doctored soft copy of his passport, "Sinsi Deepak", a tweaked number, the kind of amateur-hour forgery that works right up until it doesn't. And he walked out with three Rolexes that were, to his knowledge, bought with a fake.
Except the watch was real.After Singh left, the dealer walked the Saru around to neighbouring shops for a second opinion. One of them handed him a loupe and told him to look properly at the serial. The engraving looked off. Washed down, then re-lasered. Classic franken-Rolex warning sign. The dealer called Singh. Singh, now panicking and still thinking he'd just offloaded a dud, picked up, promised to come back, then ghosted. He booked a 10pm flight to Rome via Helsinki and went to Changi.
The dealer called the cops. The cops got to Changi first. Singh was arrested before boarding.
Then came the plot twist.Singapore police took the Saru to the Rolex Service Centre. A technician went over it and certified every part as authentic and original. The watch Singh was convinced was a fake, the watch he'd flown international to dump, the watch he'd falsified his passport for, was the real deal. He could have sat on it, sold it openly in Europe and made a tidy profit. Instead he'd just tried to cheat a man out of three genuine Rolexes using a Rolex that didn't need cheating.
This is the bit lawyers love. Under Section 511(3) of Singapore's Penal Code, an "impossible attempt" is still a crime if the intent and the actions are there, even if the underlying offence couldn't actually happen. You meant to cheat. You did everything to cheat. The only reason no one was cheated is a fact you didn't know. Guilty.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sean Teh pushed for 12 months, arguing Singh had followed the scam through to completion and then legged it for the airport. His lawyers from LVM Law Chambers asked for six, leaning on the fact that no actual loss was caused, that it was a first offence, and that Singh's parents, a housekeeper and a cook earning under S$2,300 a month between them, couldn't afford to fly 13 hours from Italy to visit. The court landed on seven months. Singh pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to cheat. A second charge over the doctored passport was taken into consideration.
And look, there's no sympathy on offer here for the attempted con. The dealer did everything right. UV torch, warranty check, a second pair of eyes, a loupe once doubt crept in. That's the job. The reason this one stings is the sheer avoidability of it. Singh had a real Rolex GMT Saru. In that corner of collecting, that's a lottery ticket. He just didn't trust it, didn't get a proper authentication, and panicked his way into a Singaporean jail cell instead.
If there's a lesson for the rest of us, it's an old one dressed up in a very expensive suit. Buy the seller before you buy the watch. Get the thing authenticated by someone who actually knows the reference, not a mate on WhatsApp and a shop that shrugs. And if you ever find yourself convinced your Rolex is fake, maybe don't book the 10pm flight out of Changi before you're really, really sure.
Hand on heart, this is the wildest watch story this side of 2026.
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