A middleman who sold on the Duke of Westminster’s stolen Cartier watch has been jailed.
Nathan Elliott, 31, claimed he had bought the Cartier London Tank JC watch from a friend for £150 before selling it at an auctioneers for £22,500.
But it had been burgled along with two others from the Duke’s Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire in August 2022 by a decorator-turned-burglar.
Elliott was convicted of possessing criminal property at Chester Crown Court on Monday and handed an eight-month sentence.
The court heard Matthew Turner, who was convicted of stealing the watch in January 2024, was working at Eaton Hall as a decorator at the time.
A Panerai Luminor Marina watch and a Breitling watch, both worth £7,000, also went missing and have not been recovered.
The Duke of Westminster told an earlier hearing that the watches were of “huge sentimental value” to him.
Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, told the court on Tuesday that the Cartier watch turned up at a Bath auction house in November 2022 where it was sold for £22,500.
The “rare and easily recognisable” watch had been put up for sale at the auction by Elliott and his partner Kayleigh Gordon but had been spotted by enthusiast Harry Fane who contacted the Duke of Westminster.
Judge Simon Berkson jailed Elliott for eight months for possession of criminal property.
He told him: “The watch had been stolen and was sold at auction for £22,500. You acted as the middleman between the burglar and the seller. You played an important role.”
Turner, of Great Sutton, Chester, was given a 20-month sentence suspended for two years in January 2024 and Gordon, of Ellesmere Port, was given nine months suspended for two years.
Judge Berkson also handed Elliott a consecutive sentence of 50 months for his role in a cannabis conspiracy.
He was one of 16 defendants sentenced for their role in an “industrial and well-structured” conspiracy to sell cannabis throughout Merseyside and Cheshire.
Mr ap Mihangel said Elliott had just been released from prison for a separate offence in September 2023 when he “immediately” became involved in the operation to distribute drugs from a unit on an industrial estate in Ellesmere Port.
He said he played “a significant role” in the “storage, preparation and distribution” of cannabis for five months until his arrest in March 2024.
