A former boutique manager of Piaget was jailed for 5 1/2 years on Monday for pocketing $776,160 belonging to her employer.

Chua Soh Keow, 49, had pleaded guilty to three of six charges of criminal breach of trust of a total of $749,759 belonging to Richemont Luxury, the main distributor of Piaget brand of luxury watches and jewellery, between 2006 and 2009. The remaining three charges were taken into consideration.

Chua was managing the Ngee Ann City boutique when she misappropriated money collected from the company's customers. Chua, who surrendered herself in March 2009, failed to register every sale or after-sales service transaction into the company's system, and issue a system-generated invoice to the customer upon collection of payment.

She used the money misappropriated for her personal expenses and for betting purposes - about $9,000 in bets every week.