In a surprising turn of events, a decorator convicted of stealing three watches valued at more than £30,000 from the residence of the Duke of Westminster has narrowly escaped imprisonment. Matthew Turner, 24, received a 20-month suspended sentence for two years at Chester Crown Court after pleading guilty to the burglary, which took place during renovations at Eaton Hall in August 2022.
The stolen timepieces included a Cartier London Tank JC watch worth £18,000, a Panerai Luminor Marina watch valued at £7,000, and a Breitling watch, a birthday gift for the duke from his late father and mother, estimated to be worth around £7,000. Turner, who was grappling with a cocaine addiction at the time, pilfered the watches from the bedroom of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster and godfather to Prince George.
The burglary went undetected until an astonishing coincidence unfolded when Harry Fane, the individual who had sold the Cartier watch to the duke, spotted it for sale on an auction site in November of the same year. Unfortunately, the other two watches have never been recovered.
During the sentencing at Chester Crown Court, Honorary Recorder Steven Everett informed Turner that he had narrowly avoided imprisonment “by the skin of his teeth.” The judge emphasized that Turner, who was employed by a long-trusted firm working on the duke’s estate, had chosen not to disclose the whereabouts of the two missing watches, indicating that one may have been exchanged with a drug dealer.
In a victim impact statement, the duke expressed the sentimental value of the stolen watches, beyond their financial worth. He conveyed discomfort knowing that someone entrusted with a job had violated his private space.
Turner, who also admitted to a separate theft offense involving £60 stolen from a colleague’s wallet at Top Gear Tyres in Ellesmere Port in December 2022, was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and undergo 30 days of rehabilitation activity. Despite the differences in financial backgrounds between the victims, the judge acknowledged that no court order could adequately compensate for the duke’s loss.
