Harry Arakelian: Wentworth Point man guilty of leaving Australia with diamonds
A cash-strapped jeweller fled Australia back in 2002 with a 3.58 carat round brilliant cut diamond and 2.31 carat princess cut cognac diamond. It was only when he applied for a liquor licence last year that cops finally tracked him down.
Inner West
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A cash-strapped jeweller who fled Australia with two high-quality diamonds has been branded as a “mean man” after confessing to his historic heist in court.
The court heard Haroutioun Arakelian, 53, bolted to New Zealand in 2002 with the diamonds to “start a new life” because his Sydney jewellery business, Rubility Jewellers, was failing.
The agreed statement of police facts revealed there were 21 outstanding warrants out for the man, who duped diamond merchants by failing to return stones he had agreed to either sell or return.
Nearly two decades after his great escape, Arakelian’s criminal ways caught up to him when he was arrested inside his own Wentworth Point restaurant Paparazoo after applying for a liquor licence last October.
The Wentworth Point man’s barrister Stephen Stanton described his client’s actions in 2002 as “awful” after Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said Arakelian was “mean”.
“What a mean, absolutely mean thing to do on two occasions,” she said. “If you run into financial difficulty in the future, how do I know you are going to be tempted to do this again.”
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Mr Stanton told the court Arakelian had a clean criminal record since his diamond heist and was a changed man who wanted to repay the two victims for stealing the 3.58 carat round brilliant cut diamond and 2.31 carat princess cut cognac diamond.
The court heard the plea of guilty came on the day after “significant discussions” with police prosecutor Stuart Coote and the Detective in charge of the investigation, which led to an agreement of $17,000 compensation for the two victims.
Sergeant Coote told the court he doesn’t hide the fact his priority was to compensate the long-suffering victims, saying “I wanted our complainants to walk away with basically something today”.
Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge sentenced Arakelian to a two-year conditional release order without conviction and ordered the man to pay the victims by early 2022.
When the Wentworth Point man was asked outside court if he had anything to say to the victims, he walked away.