A self-proclaimed ‘rich kid of Instagram’ who once bragged his family were the ‘British Kardashians’ is facing jail after being convicted of scamming rich friends and relatives out of almost £200,000.
Jack Watkin posed as a millionaire on social media to persuade people – including his own father – to invest in his fake designer handbag business.
The 26-year-old former public schoolboy promised his victims a share of the profits if they loaned him cash to buy and sell expensive Hermes bags.
But Chester Crown Court heard neither the handbags or any profit ever materialised and instead Watkin used the cash to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
At one stage he spent weeks living at the five-star Dorchester Hotel, in London’s Mayfair, where rooms cost up to £3,000-a-night. Police said his bill topped £136,000 in just six months.
He also paid more than £22,000 to travel around the capital in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and regularly visited Harrods, where he ‘scouted’ for victims and spent almost £68,000.
Following his arrest, officers also executed warrants on his self-storage ‘wardrobe’ in Knightsbridge where he kept his extensive collection of designer goods and clothes.
Pony-tailed Watkin went on trial yesterday for fraud but this morning dramatically changed his pleas. He admitted six counts of fraud against six victims between December 2019 and August 2024, totalling more than £195,000.
Another count of fraud and two of theft were ordered to lie on his file.
Today the Mail can reveal that earlier this year Watkin stood trial and was convicted at the same court of child pornography charges, including five counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of possession of indecent images of children, plus one count of possession of a prohibited image of a child and another charge of possession of an extreme pornographic image.
He will be sentenced for both the fraud and child porn charges in September.
Police discovered the child porn on his mobile phone when they seized his device following his arrest for the fraud allegations, in March last year.
Remanding Watkin into custody, Judge Simon Berkson told him a prison sentence was inevitable.
‘You have pleaded guilty to a number of charges of fraud, they are serious and involve a significant amount of loss to your victims,’ the judge said.
‘There is only one sentence that must follow from those guilty pleas, particularly as you have already been found guilty of other serious matters involving indecent images of children.’
Watkin, who also has a previous conviction for drink driving, was featured in the Channel 4 documentary Rich Kids Of Instagram, which first aired in 2016, aged 17.
In the programme, he likened his family to the wealthy US Kardashian dynasty, and bragged about having a fleet of supercars, including a Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Range Rover, worth £1.7m.
He also claimed he regularly flew on his father’s private jet, splurged £500,000 on a Bulgari watch and was living in a mansion with a swimming pool in Alderley Edge, one of the exclusive towns and villages made famous as the home of Premier League footballers which is part of Cheshire’s exclusive ‘golden triangle.’
He told the documentary: ‘My life is not easy. My dad has worked very hard to make sure I can have all these nice things. Our private jet doesn’t just fly itself; our pool doesn’t just clean itself; all my cars don’t automatically fill themselves with petrol.’
But earlier this week it became evident that Watkin’s privileged upbringing and extravagant lifestyle had dramatically fallen apart.
Police said the catalyst came in 2019 when his parents split up and Watkin was effectively cut off by his property mogul father, Jason Watkin, 55, who disapproved of his extravagant spending.
Prosecutor Matthew Kerruish-Jones told the court that Watkin cooked up the scam, which centred around the high-end French designer brand Hermes and involved promising investors the chance of making a quick profit out of the handbags – but failed to deliver.
The fashion house only allows select customers to buy their exclusive handbags, which often have a higher second-hand resale values than when bought new.
Mr Kerruish-Jones said Watkin persuaded one family friend to invest by claiming he had a ‘personal relationship’ with the director of Hermes that afforded him special access to their luxury bags.
He also posed as a millionaire on social media to persuade his victims to handover cash.
Opening the trial, Mr Kerruish-Jones said: ‘The prosecution allege that this defendant defrauded multiple individuals with the offer of a legitimate business venture to purchase and sell exclusive handbags.
‘The defendant put forward the outward façade 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.
‘The reality was once he had been provided the money it would not be repaid as agreed, leaving multiple individuals in this case out of pocket for large sums of money. The defendant would make excuses and avoid the complainants, all the while spending large sums of money on maintaining his seemingly lavish lifestyle.’
The court heard that Watkin’s defrauded Hannah Jakes, one of his long-time friends, out of more than £98,500, while businesswoman Christine Colbert, who owns a designer boutique, lost £43,800.
Watkin was also accused of stealing a blue Hermes bag, worth £21,000, and a Goyard alligator handbag, worth £8,000 from Ms Colbert’s store, Dress Cheshire, in Prestbury, Cheshire.
He also defrauded his own father out of almost £14,000.
The jury heard Watkin’s relationship with his father ‘soured’ around December 2019 when he refused to loan his son £100,000 for his luxury goods business. Watkin also claimed his father was ‘unsympathetic’ when trading became difficult during the Covid pandemic.
But Mr Kerruish-Jones said: ‘Mr Watkin was concerned by the amount of money the defendant appeared to be spending on his social life, despite having no formal employment.’
Another victim was businessman James Irlam, who was introduced to Watkin via his mother-in-law. She was a friend of Watkin’s mother, Jo Stringfellow.
Mr Irlam initially bought a Hermes Birkin bag off Watkin for his wife’s birthday but subsequently lost around £24,500 after being persuaded to invest in his ‘business proposal.’
But when no handbags or any returns on his investment emerged, Mr Irlam began legal proceedings against Watkin.
Barman Andor Farkas, who worked in Harrods, also lost around £14,000 in the scam.
Watkin told Mr Farkas he was a millionaire and, after the pair became friends, promised him a ‘financial return’ if he allowed him to spend money on his personal credit card.
But, Mr Kerruish-Jones said, Watkin never repaid any of the money back.
The final victim, Naheem Akhtar, was introduced to Watkin via social media.
Mr Akhtar said Watkin gave the ‘perception’ on social media that he was a millionaire and involved in the fashion industry.
He agreed to transfer £840 to Watkin’s bank account for him to source a pair of ‘summer walk’ shoes by the Italian designer brand Lora Piana. But Mr Akhtar never received the shoes and when he chased Watkin he was met with ‘endless excuses including that he was in hospital’.
Watkin was finally caught in March last year when Ms Colbert, who had been repeatedly requesting her money back, lost patience and put a post on Instagram warning the public to stay away from him because ‘she had been defrauded.’
Ms Jakes saw the post and got in touch with Ms Colbert. The pair realised they had both been duped and agreed to ‘turn Miss Marple’ together.
Ms Jakes, who had been friends with Watkin for more than a decade, set up a meeting with him in Alderley Edge. When he arrived she contacted Ms Colbert who in turn called detectives from Cheshire police, who arrived to arrest him.
When questioned Watkin claimed his lifestyle was funded by his mother and a partner, who he refused to name.
He claimed it was his intention to repay Ms Colbert, but he needed more time. He also suggested she owed him cash and Ms Jakes was ‘flexible’ about the outstanding money he owed.
But when officers began to investigate Watkin’s finances they discovered that he had been pawning some of the luxury goods and had been made bankrupt a year earlier.
Detective Constable 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.’
He added: ‘He often described himself as the Kardashian of Cheshire. What my understanding from that would be is that he is a an individual of wealth and has the ability to purchase wealthy items. As a result of that he then gets notoriety, from an Instagram perspective, followers, people. People follow him with the desire to be him.’
Senior crown prosecutor Laura Atherton said Watkin was ‘incredibly charismatic’ and ‘persuasive.’
‘Some of these frauds span several years, and so 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,’ she said.
