A man who played a key role as Rolex watches valued at £51,000 were snatched from a South Cumbria jewellers has been given another prison sentence.
Carlisle Crown Court heard today that 32-year-old Bagasan Graham — also known as Johari Nasir Carter — had a lengthy list of copycat crimes to his name, 17 different aliases and spent seven years of his adult life behind bars
On June 14 2022, Graham and a female accomplice first went to a tyre centre in Kendal where staff were duped into fitting false number plates to a Nissan Micra.
The partner-in-crime then entered the Banks Lyon store in Market Place where she showed an interest in expensive watches and built up a rapport with staff.
She left the store initially before making a return visit, asking the owner to see four Rolex watches.
“Staff were comfortable, offering her a coffee while she made her decision about what they thought was going to be an expensive purchase,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke. “While the owner was distracted, looking out if the front window of the shop, (the accomplice) grabbed all four watches with a collective value of £51,600 and fled the shop.”
She was seen by a bystander running down the street before getting into the Micra driven by Graham who, said Mr Burke, was the crime’s chief protagonist.
The duo drove to Oxenholme railway station where Graham caught a train south but he was later detained and identified from CCTV footage.
His accomplice — a woman of previous good character — was later stopped on the M6 but no watches were found or ever recovered, the prosecution inferring that Graham had made off with them.
In 2022, Graham received jail sentences for thefts of Cartier and Rolex watches from pawnbrokers’ in Rochdale and London.
He admitted theft of the Rolex watches from Kendal and was sentenced this afternoon.
A defence barrister told the court that a gambling addiction lay behind Graham’s offending following a traumatic and challenging early life.
“But the father-of-three had since taken steps to rehabilitate himself, was seeking to take a maths degree, open a barber shop and set a good example to his young sons.
Graham, previously of Clock Tower Court, Rochdale, was jailed for 18 months. Judge Nicholas Barker had said of his offending: “It is not shop theft. It is a sophisticated form of thieving.”
