Jewellery dealer ‘conned clients out of £1m’, court told

A high end jewellery dealer conned customers out of £1 million by either underpaying or failing to pay them for the valuables he had sold on their behalf, a court has been told.

James Charles, also known as Jamie Goatley, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court charged with more than 20 counts of fraud involving watches, jewellery and bars of gold.

The prosecution says he would value items, agree to sell them while charging commission, take possession of the item but then only give them a fraction of the agreed sale price – or nothing at all.

As well as the fraud charges, he’s also charged with converting criminal property – or money laundering – by converting the items he had taken into cash by selling them, and by paying this cash into bank accounts.

Most of the charges date from between September 2022, shortly after he set up a company called Olympia Mayfair Ltd and 11 February, when he was first arrested at his Southwick home.

But a few weeks after that, he changed his name from Jamie Goatley to James Charles and set up a new company, National Gold Buyers Ltd. Some of the charges relate to that period.

Charles denies all the charges.

Today, the court heard from two of the alleged victims, Barry White and David Broman, both of whom asked Charles to sell watches worth tens of thousands of pounds.

And the jury was also played a phonecall Goatley made to Mr White, in which he confirmed he had been arrested – but insisted he would still be paying up. The money never arrived.

Both Mr White and Mr Broman said they found Charles and his company Olympia Mayfair through a Google search.

Mr White said he had decided to sell his Patek Phillipe watch to pay for a shoulder operation and to put towards his daughter’s wedding.

He emailed Olympia Mayfair in November 2023, and Charles made an appointment to come to his house.

Mr White said: “He came across very well and he knew what he was talking about. He made me feel quite comfortable.”

He said Charles valued the watch at £45,000 – which he said was in “mint condition” having just been serviced, and took it away.

But when he began to contact him to ask for updates, Charles started to become vague.

By February 2024, Mr White realised something was up. He said: “The alarm bells were ringing and then I went back on the website of Olympia Mayfair and bad reviews were popping up.”

He contacted the police on 13 February. Shortly after, he received a phonecall from Charles, which the jury was played.

In it, Charles says: “I haven’t gone anywhere, I’m going to pay you.”

Mr White said he never received any money for the watch, and never saw it again.

David Broman said the Rolex watch he asked Charles to sell in October 2023 had been a present for his 60th birthday – but had hardly been worn since he got spooked by news reports about gangs snatching high end watches.

He said: “I was reading that people were having valuable items and watches stolen. It was lying in a safe and I didn’t feel confident walking around wearing it.”

Like Mr White, he said Charles had come to his house, valued the watch and then taken it away with him.

They had agreed a sale price of £28,000, and after commission Mr White would get £26,050.

In December, Charles said the watch had sold, but banking issues were preventing him transferring the money.

A few days later, Charles sent him £6,050, but said there were now issues with HMRC and the other £20,000 would come by Christmas.

On 27 December, Charles sent £10,000, but said he couldn’t pay the balance as his accounts were frozen because of money laundering. No more money was sent.

Police later found a receipt dated the same day Charles first took the watch for £15,750 – which the prosecution says shows he sold it for 40% less than the agreed price.

Today, Mr Broman said he would never have agreed that sale price.

He said: “What kept me going was the fact I had already had some money. I thought if I had had some, I would get the rest.”

The other alleged victims are: