Man is jailed for string of jewellery shop thefts

A thief who targeted four branches of the same jewellers, escaping with watches and a ring worth £35,000, has been jailed.

Michael Williams struck at branches of Ernest Jones in Stafford, Solihull, Bristol and Gloucester.

Williams, aged 44, of no fixed address, but formerly of Lee Road, Wolverhampton, was sent to prison for two years and eight months after pleading guilty to four charges of theft.

Warwick Crown Court heard that on December 8 last year Williams went into the shop in Bristol and showed an interest in a £10,000 Rolex watch.

After being shown the watch, he asked to try it on and, once it was on his wrist, he turned and ran out of the door before the assistant could react.

In February he struck in Stafford, asking to look at two watches. As the assistant was holding them for him to see, Williams snatched a £3,000 Tag Hauer watch from her hand and fled.

Just a week later he struck in Solihull, where he made off with a £17,000 Rolex watch he snatched from an assistant's hand. The following month he had moved on to Gloucester where, again at an Ernest Jones shop and grabbed a £4,250 diamond ring. e West Midlands and Gloucestershire.

The court heard he had a large number of previous convictions for theft from shops – and at Gloucester Crown Court in January last year had been jailed for 16 months for similar offences when he had stolen a £7,000 Breitling watch and two gold and diamond rings.

He was on licence from that sentence at the time of his latest theft, having been freed in November, and has since been recalled to prison to continue serving that term.