A bogus customer who tried to steal Rolex watches worth over £29,000 from a Harrogate jeweller’s shop has been jailed.

Matthew Massey, a fake ‘war hero’, posed as a customer interested in buying two high-value Rolexes in the window display at Ogden’s Jewellers in James Street.

He conned a shop assistant into taking the watches out of the window display, then snatched them as they were laid on the counter on a glass plinth, York Crown Court heard.

He then ran out of the store and pushed the shop assistant to the floor as he tried to stop him fleeing, said prosecutor Rob Galley.

Massey, who dropped the watches during the struggle, fled the scene but handed himself in to police the following day.

He was remanded in custody and ultimately charged with attempted theft and assaulting the shopkeeper.

Massey, 33, admitted the offences and appeared in court today when sentence was initially adjourned after he claimed he was a former Royal Marine, which may have reduced his sentence.

But as judge Sean Morris was about to postpone the case for enquiries to be made about Massey’s self-proclaimed military background, the thief, who works as a builder, told his barrister that he had lied and had never served in the army.

Mr Morris said that Massey was a “Walter Mitty” character whose military pretensions were wholly bogus.

Prosecuting barrister Mr Galley said the incident occurred at about 1.50pm on April 9, when Massey walked into the long-established jewellers “asking about Rolex watches”, specifically items displayed in the outside window box and “how it may impact (their) value”.

Mr Galley added:

The shopkeeper placed the watches on a glass plinth on the counter, whereupon Massey “made a grab for the two watches, got hold of them, but dropped them near the front entrance door”.

Mr Galley said:

As he opened the front door, Massey grabbed hold of the assistant and dragged him across the front entrance, before pushing him back, causing him to fall to the ground as other shop workers and customers went to his aid. The victim suffered a small cut to his finger caused by the fall.

Mr Galley said the two watches, worth a combined £29,100, were both recovered, although damage had been caused to the glass plinth inside the jeweller’s shop, which was established in 1893.

The following day, Massey, from Leeds, handed himself in at Harrogate Police Station, telling officers he “wanted to discuss a robbery at Ogden’s”.

Mr Galley said the incident was typical of Massey’s “modus operandi” in previous jewellery raids.

In 2014, he was jailed for four years and eight months for an armed bank robbery in which he brandished an imitation handgun.

In 2019, he was jailed for two years for another armed robbery at a jeweller’s shop in Cleveland. In that incident, Massey had again posed as a customer before making a grab for items of jewellery.

Defence barrister John Batchelor said that Massey, a father-of-two with a long-term partner, had “money in the bank” at the time of the incident in Harrogate from his work as a builder.

But he said that “every four or five years”, and despite Massey’s settled family life, he “gets into a dark place” and “reverts to his old ways”.

Mr Batchelor said that Massey had told him and a previous defence counsel that he had been in the Royal Marines for three years before being discharged on medical grounds.

Judge Mr Morris, the Recorder of York, was about to adjourn sentence for the defence to gain proof about Massey’s military background, but then the defendant beckoned his barrister and told him he had lied about being in the army.

Mr Morris duly proceeded to sentence and told Massey: “You have lied to me”.

He was jailed for 17 months.

Massey, of Grady Square, Cross Green, will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.