Asingle swipe card inside a former promising lawyer’s wallet unlocked the largest burglary investigation its lead detective had faced, having baffled police for years.
Phillip See, the wallet’s owner and one-time paralegal at the Crown Solicitor’s Office in Sydney, was a suspect in more than 100 burglaries across affluent suburbs in the harbour city and Melbourne.
The card – discovered by the case’s lead investigator, Victoria Police’s Detective acting Sergeant Cliff Pickett – became the smoking gun. It opened a Sydney storage unit hiding a $5.5 million treasure trove linked to about 150 robberies over eight years. An Olympian and war veteran were among the victims.
Phillip See was sentenced to 12 years’ jail for these crimes a decade ago, with a non-parole period of 7½ years.
The “sheer volume of robberies, coupled with the amounts of money that he stole”, made it the largest burglary investigation Pickett had confronted.
To this day, he wonders how some sophisticated thefts were executed, and what motivated a man who rarely spent his dirty cash.
“I’ve never, ever found someone as invested in researching different ways to commit crime,” he said.
“I couldn’t really get inside his head as to why he was doing the things he was doing. It wasn’t to lead an extravagant lifestyle … maybe it was the challenge of doing things and the thrill of getting away with it.”
Pickett can recall the elation he felt when he and his Victorian and NSW colleagues finally cracked the case – mainly because it was unique and bizarre.
Now, the 47-year-old has quietly avoided prison after returning to his old tricks and stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of valuables from Sydney’s north shore and northern beaches.
Robbery manuals replace legal books
As a young adult, the future looked bright for the quick-witted law and economics graduate.
But as Phillip See fell into drug use and mental health challenges, he began committing petty thefts and trespasses. He spent the next decades visiting courtrooms, but not for reasons he’d hoped.
‘I’ve never, ever found someone as invested in researching different ways to commit crime.’
Victoria Police’s Detective acting Sergeant Cliff Pickett
After his first jail stint in the early 2000s, his crimes – and ability to evade capture – escalated.
From 2010 to 2011, Victorian and NSW Police noticed similarities in many unsolved and sophisticated burglaries. Families in wealthy areas were targeted while on holiday. Fleeing without a trace, the culprit would even repair and repaint damaged window frames, often leaving victims unaware of the intrusion until police returned their valuables.
“A lot of the time the safe would be removed and not located,” Pickett said.
“Now, these were quite heavy safes … How he did that, I don’t know.”
A breakthrough came when NSW detectives traced jewellery, stolen from Sydney and sold at a Melbourne auction under a fake name, to Phillip See. He was a prime suspect, using fake IDs, names and credit cards.
Investigations uncovered that he and his father, Christopher See, committed a daring $900,000 heist in a Melbourne warehouse in late 2011.
Court documents state they remained on a police-tapped call throughout the burglary. Christopher See kept watch from a nearby church, while his son scaled and cut a tall barbed wire fence. Inside, Phillip See used a portable power saw to slice a timber door that protected a safe deposit box room and would only spark an alarm if opened. He covered a CCTV camera and cut the locks of dozens of security boxes while his father removed valuables.
“Wait till you see it, Dad,” Phillip See told his father on the phone.
Upon his arrest in Sydney, the pair were extradited to Melbourne. While searching Phillip See, Pickett found the swipe card. His NSW counterparts tracked down the Sydney storage unit.
The $5.5 million stash contained valuables from the Melbourne warehouse and auction thefts. Police uncovered more than $2.3million in Australian and foreign currency, 145 kilograms of silver bars, 100 ounces of gold, several firearms, 8500 pieces of jewellery and hundreds of bottles of expensive wine.
At a See family member’s Bellevue Hill home in Sydney’s east, police found piles of “how to” books, including those titled How to Crack Safes, Locks, Safes and Security and Understanding and Servicing Alarm Systems.
This masthead earlier reported that lower north shore resident, Trish Howman-Giles, burst into tears when her wedding and engagement rings, anniversary gifts and family heirlooms were recovered.
Busted with gold tucked under pillow
By dealing with so much cash and “stealing any valuable item you could think of”, Phillip See could have lived in a luxury penthouse, taken lavish holidays and dressed in designer clothing.
But when he was caught, he was found living in a “crappy boarding house”, owning only casual clothes. The sole sign of his newfound wealth? A gold bar hidden under his pillow.
He remained cool, calm and collected upon his arrest.
“Reserved and cocky don’t usually go together, but he had an air of cockiness and confidence about him, but he also didn’t talk too much; he didn’t get angry,” Pickett said.
“I think the only time he showed any emotion was when he realised we were taking this swipe card from him … [he was] either frustrated or a little bit belligerent.”
Large amounts of money were spent on specialised lock-picking equipment ordered from the US, safe-picking manuals and even a submersible drone. His technology skills were far ahead of his time.
“He appeared to be of high intelligence, but with limited social skills,” Pickett said.
“We would [ask ourselves], ‘OK, why is this person able to do this? Who are they?’ ”
‘Reserved and cocky don’t usually go together, but he had an air of cockiness and confidence about him.’
Detective acting Sergeant Cliff Pickett
Police were surprised he mostly carried out his work alone, bar the occasional help of his father. This suggested a “really unusual type of relationship”.
After their extradition to Victoria and discovery of the card, the father and son pleaded guilty to the Melbourne offences. Both men were jailed for up to four years.
Following the younger See’s release, in 2016 he was sentenced in NSW for the Sydney crimes to a maximum of 12 years’ jail. These included a raft of dishonesty and firearm crimes, as well as dealing with the proceeds of crime over the $5.5 million stash.
The sentencing judge noted his diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder (SzPD) – characterised by detachment from social relationships, limited emotional expression and preference for isolation. He was also abusing drugs and not taking antipsychotic medication properly.
While it was accepted his mental illness “had some role to play”, other motivations included “a desire for greater closeness with his father and greed for money to pay for regular visits to sex workers”, documents state.
Thief avoids jail for 2022 spree
Phillip See was released to parole in July 2020. A mere 19 months later, he struck again.
In February 2022, he stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery from three Sydney homes in the upper north shore and northern beaches, court documents state.
When one Lindfield family returned from a Queensland holiday, they could not disarm the alarm at their home. Power was cut; a broken deadlock lay near scattered belongings. About $59,000 worth of jewellery was missing.
In the same week, $50,000 of jewellery was collectively reported stolen from homes in Killarney Heights and Allambie Heights.
Phillip See’s latest undoing came when his DNA was matched to the Lindfield house and he was arrested.
Five months after being released on bail, he was arrested again. Police found plastic bags containing jewellery from all three addresses in his pocket.
He pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to breaking-and-entering to steal less than $60,000, with one count of receiving more than $5,000 worth of property and another count of suspected stolen goods in custody considered. Last month, he was sentenced to a 359-day Intensive Corrective Order.
Judge Stephen Hanley took account of his mental illnesses and prior drug use.
He said there was “potential disagreement” between doctors about a current schizophrenia diagnosis, and noted suggestions he previously used the diagnosis to “some extent, milk the system”, but concluded the illness was a “valid psychiatric opinion”.
The nature of his recent offending was affected by his schizophrenia, antisocial behaviour, and other mental health issues – alongside financial motive, Hanley found.
The judge described the crimes as “extremely distressing” for the victims, but said full-time prison may risk “interrupting what appears to be a genuine, sustained course of rehabilitation in all the circumstances. There has been a significant change in insight he’s demonstrated.”
Phillip See, who was supported in court by his mother, sat emotionless as he learnt he would not return to jail.
His reoffending – albeit on a smaller scale – was not shocking for Pickett.
“It didn’t surprise me at all that he went back to do it,” he said.
“The lack of sophistication and type of burglary [this time] surprised me.”
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