Chester Crown Court Sentencing Results

Matthew Turner, a 24-year-old decorator employed by a trusted firm, stole three watches worth more than £30,000 from the Duke of Westminster's bedroom at Eaton Hall near Chester in August 2022 while carrying out renovation work. The items included a Cartier London Tank JC watch worth £18,000, a Panerai Luminor Marina watch worth £7,000, and a Breitling watch worth £7,000, which held sentimental value as it was a gift from the duke's late father and mother. One watch was recovered after being spotted on an auction site, but the other two were not; Turner was motivated by drug debts and refused to disclose their location.

On Saturday, December 30, 2023, Mike Swarbrick was involved in a dispute in Chester city centre at around 3am and left the scene in a taxi. Police traced him to his home in Nearne Place, Ellesmere Port, where they discovered a large cannabis farm, cash, and a quantity of cocaine. Tests revealed traces of his DNA on the drugs, and mobile phones showed messages indicating his active involvement in the sale of illegal drugs. He was arrested and charged.

David Norbury, a 52-year-old sex offender from Shores Green Drive in Wincham, failed to notify police of his online alias 'TrendyBear109758' as required by the sex offenders register. He also breached a sexual harm prevention order by entering and remaining at an address with a child under 16 between June 25 and August 27, 2023. This is his second breach of an SHPO in three years; previously, he received an eight-week sentence for deleting his internet search history.

Richard Webb sexually abused his victim over the course of six years, with the first incident occurring in the 1990s. The abuse involved six counts of indecent assault on a child, leading to the victim disassociating from her childhood and suffering long-term emotional trauma.

Police executed a warrant at Russell Wilcox's home address in Longridge, Knutsford, on August 29, 2023, where they seized four sawn-off shotguns along with ammunition. Wilcox, aged 52, was arrested at the scene.

Georgia Bilham created a false online Snapchat persona named George Parry to deceive a short-sighted teenager into believing she was a man. She maintained this deception by wearing a hood to hide her identity and claimed paranoia due to alleged involvement with gangsters. On May 11, 2021, she crashed a car while with the victim and was convicted of sexually assaulting the teenager by kissing her, as the victim had not given true consent due to the deception.

Arif Patel, a 57-year-old from Preston, Lancashire, ran a scam through his company Faisaltex Ltd, involving chains of fake business transactions to steal VAT repayments on false exports of textiles and mobile phones. He also imported and sold counterfeit clothes worth at least £50 million if genuine. The fraud funded a £90 million property empire across the UK and overseas, and he fled to Dubai in 2011.

Mohamed Jaffar Ali, 61, from Dubai, assisted in the fraud and money laundering operations by handling finances as part of Arif Patel's gang, which involved carousel fraud to evade VAT on false exports and imports of textiles, mobile phones, and counterfeit goods.

Christopher Guest More murdered Brian Waters, a cannabis dealer, at Burnt House Farm near Knutsford, Cheshire, in 2003, in front of Waters' children Natalie (21) and Gavin (25). Waters was tortured over a £20,000 drug debt owed to John Wilson. More's wife Julie was abducted from their home. More had befriended Wilson, believing him to be a police informant, and located the cannabis farm by following Waters' son. He fled using a fake identity, living in South Africa, Mozambique, Turkey, and Malta.

Barry Bennell abused young footballers he coached by inviting them to stay at his home, with incidents occurring between 1979 and 1992. He targeted boys aged nine to 14, including acts of indecent assault and sexual abuse while associated with football clubs like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra.