Luxury handbag conman admits swindling thousands | Manchester News

A “charismatic and persuasive” conman who persuaded people to invest thousands of pounds to buy and sell luxury handbags has pleaded guilty to fraud.

Jack Watkin, 26, gained his victims’ trust by putting forward an “outward facade of a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle” but left them out of pocket, Chester Crown Court heard.

A trial had begun on Monday but Watkin, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, earlier pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and will be sentenced on 3 September.

The conman, who was in Channel 4 documentary Rich Kids Of Instagram in 2016, spent the money he swindled in London’s Harrods store and stays in the capital’s five-star Dorchester hotel, according to police.

Opening the trial, Matthew Kerruish-Jones, prosecuting, said: “The defendant put forward the outward facade of a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle.

“This, it seems, engendered trust and led a number of individuals to loan him large sums of money on the promise of either a financial return or luxury items. Neither of which materialised.”

He said complainants would be left “out of pocket for large sums of money”.

He added: “The defendant would make excuses and avoid the complainants, all the while spending large sums of money on maintaining his seemingly lavish lifestyle.”

Watkin had defrauded business and individuals to the value of over £200,000, Cheshire Police said.

The jury was told that the sought-after Hermes handbags cannot be purchased over the counter and any prospective customers have to be invited to buy one, making it a lucrative investment as the resale value can be much higher than the original price.

Watkin told his victims he had the contacts that could give them access to the handbags and that they could split the profits made on resale.

They then handed over their money in good faith but when his victims questioned the lack of any bag or money he would make excuses.

He duped one woman into handing over thousands thinking she was investing in the the luxury handbag when she was in fact paying his bills at the Dorchester.

She, like the others, never received the handbags or their share in the profits of their resale.

Watkin, who was remanded in custody, was also convicted earlier this year of nine offences related to indecent images.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Cons Gareth Yates said: “Jack Watkin is a male who has built a lifestyle on social media, on Instagram, and that lifestyle is one of exuberance.

“So if anyone was to look at that profile, you would see fancy hotels, luxury cars, designer clothing, and he created a following, and that following allowed him to create a ruse to be the fraudster we now know, and convicted fraudster.”

Senior crown prosecutor Laura Atherton said: “Some of these frauds span several years.

“Clearly, to be able to convince an individual for that length of time that you are going to repay money and you are going to provide goods, you have to be an incredibly charismatic and persuasive person to keep that up.

“It’s just got to the stage where things had ran on for so long that complainants have then come forward when they come to the realisation, as it’s the crown’s case, that their goods or their money were never going to materialise.”