Time bandit: Watch dealer jailed over £1m fraud

A watch dealer who defrauded his victims out of more than £1 million has been jailed for just over five years.

Adam Moore-Lynch ran Manchester Watch Hub based on King Street in the city centre and promised to sell on clients’ high-value watches while taking a seller’s cut.

Instead, the 38-year-old, from St Andrew’s Crescent, Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, sold the watches, some worth up to £120,000, and kept the money for himself, with total losses of around £1.2 million.

One watch he took and kept the cash for was a Rolex Daytona timepiece worth £120,000.

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 appeared at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday.

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police’s economic and cyber crime unit started an investigation and arrested Moore-Lynch in January 2024, analysing almost 50 victims’ bank accounts and mobile devices.

Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of the complex fraud investigation team, said: “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.

“The watches have not been recovered and it is highly likely they were subsequently sold to unsuspecting buyers, which further complicates efforts to recover the victims’ property.”