Rolex conman avoids jail

A salesman who tried to blag his way to a gold Rolex worth almost £30,000 by using a credit card belonging to Christie’s acution house had avoided jail.

Sam Keddy, 25, strolled into Asprey on London’s New Bond Street in the hope of purchasing the Rolex Sea-Dweller worth £29,300 without spending a penny of his own cash.

Newcastle-born Keddy tried to bill the watch to the famous auction house but was caught out by the sceptical shop assistant.

Despite Keddy’s claims that a ‘man on a train’ had given him the card and asked him to make the purchase jurors at Southwark Crown Court found him guilty of fraud last month.

Recorder John Mann QC spared Keddy jail today (fri) thanks to his previous good character and the fact that there was no loss to anyone.

The judge said: ‘It is not surprising you were caught because people who go into expensive jewellers and pick out £30,000 watches at random are the sort of thing staff are trained to pick out.

‘Had you gotten away with it you would be going to prison today.

‘You have been given a second chance – if you commit an offence like this again you will undoubtedly go to prison.’

Keddy looked relieved upon hearing that he had avoided jail before quickly heading out of the dock.

He entered the flagship Asprey store at around noon on July 21 last year and asked to see the gold Rolex.

Brian Stork, prosecuting at trial, said: ‘Having looked at the watch he told the shop assistant that he would like to buy it and he handed over a corporate Barclaycard.

‘The authorised card holder was one of their former employees, a Mr Stuart Toms.’

The shop assistant was immediately suspicious as it looked like Keddy was making a personal purchase on a company card.

He called Barclaycard and was rapidly informed that the transaction would be fraudulent if it went through.

Police were called and Keddy was arrested in the shop.

Investigations found that such a card had previously been issued to a Mr Toms and had initially had a credit limit of £1,500.

‘When Mr Toms left the company back in August 2014 he handed that credit card in,’ Mr Stork said.

‘He gave it to his line manager who cut the card up and put the pieces in his desk drawer.

‘It seems that the card itself was not cancelled.’

Mr Stork explained that someone had somehow got hold of the card details and on June 26 last year a request was made online by someone posing as a legitimate card holder.

The request was to change the address the card was register to and to boost the credit limit to £50,000.

A further request was later made for a replacement card and PIN number which were duly sent to the new address.

During a police interview Keddy claimed that he did not believe he was acting dishonestly.

Keddy also told police that he had never been employed by Christie’s and that he had no links to the company.

‘He said he had been working for a sales business and management company in London but for various reasons he had not been himself recently,’ Mr Stork explained.

‘He had a fall out with his boss – on the Monday his boss had said to him that he did not see them working together any more.’

Keddy told the court that he was not fired that day but was advised merely to take some time off.

Following that conversation Keddy went to stay with an ex-girlfriend in Camden and met a man on the train on the way home the next morning.

Keddy said he had tried to sell the man a Talk Talk broadband contract and he asked if could buy the watch for him.

He claimed the man, who he could only name to police as ‘Stu’, gave him the credit card along with a card with his name and address, so he did as he was asked.

But Keddy’s story changed from being handed a card with details on it to saving the man’s details in his phone to being given a scrap piece of paper with the information that he had later thrown out.

He stated that it wasn’t until he was in the shop that he began to realise how suspicious the situation – according to his sequence of events – was.

Keddy said: ‘I know it sounds ridiculous in all fairness but this guy was a pro – he knew what he was doing.

‘He played me really quickly and before I knew it I was doing something which I really didn’t realise I was doing.’

Keddy claimed that the man said he would meet him near Costa after the transaction despite the fact the defendant himself professed to have no knowledge of the Bond Street area.

Mr Stork continually picked at Keddy’s story, particularly questioning why this stranger had trusted him with the card.

‘He said that the card would only work to buy the watch and that he would know when that had been done,’ Keddy claimed.

But jurors rejected Keddy’s claim that he was ‘just not thinking’ and found that he had known exactly what he was doing when he tried to buy the watch.

Timothy Sleigh-Johnson, for Keddy, claimed his clients actions ‘started off as naivety’ but this was rejected by the judge.

The court heard that since the incident Keddy has moved back in with his parents in Newcastle and is working as a door-to-door utilities salesman.

Keddy, of Eighth Avenue, Newcastle, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years of one count of fraud by false representation.

He must carry out 100 hours of community service and pay £1,000 towards prosecution costs.

ends