A watch dealer who defrauded 50 victims out of more than £1m has been jailed for just over five years.
Adam Moore-Lynch, who ran a business called Manchester Watch Hub, promised to sell on customer’s high-value watches while taking a seller’s cut.
Instead, the 38-year-old sold the watches, some worth up to £120,000, and kept the money for himself, with total losses of around £1.2m.
Detectives from Greater Manchester Police’s economic and cybercrime unit started an investigation and arrested Mr Moore-Lynch, from Dumbarton in West Dunbartonshire, in January 2024.
The force analysed the bank accounts of almost 50 victims and their mobile devices in the subsequent investigation.
The defendant, who pleaded guilty to fraud, converting criminal property and carrying out a business with intent to defraud creditors between August 2023 and January 2024, was jailed for five years and one month when he was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday.
One of the watches he took as part of the fraud was a Rolex Daytona timepiece worth £120,000.
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It is likely that the watches were sold on to unsuspecting buyers which makes it even harder to recover them, according to Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of the complex fraud investigation team.
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She added that: “Although the sentence imposed will provide a degree of closure for the victims, it is recognised that this outcome remains overshadowed by the significant financial and emotional loss they continue to endure.”
