Facing Prison? (From Penarth Times)

Facing Prison?

A PENARTH jeweller is facing jail after being found guilty of fleecing customers, friends and family out of thousands of pounds - adding to his list of previous convictions for forgery and deception.

Gary Riggs, aged 43, owner of the Band of Gold shop on Windsor Terrace, was found guilty of seven of the 14 offences he was charged with.

Riggs denied all of the charges.

A jury at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday unanimously found Riggs, of Lynmouth Drive, Sully, guilty of stealing £1,200 from the Halifax account of 90-year-old Muriel Whitehouse, selling fake Rolex watches to friends for thousands of pounds and cheating a man over a £14,000 ring for his wife.

He was also convicted of swindling his cousin and a customer when he was asked to melt down gold for a bracelet.

Riggs, a jeweller since his teens, was cleared of stealing back a £40,000 diamond solitaire he sold to Miss Whitehouse when she had to go into a nursing home.

Riggs claimed his ex-wife had it, but she always denied this.

He was also found not guilty of dishonestly obtaining other jewellery from the pensioner.

He was found not guilty of cheating his friend Roger James over a £2,000 Cartier watch, and cleared of intimidating his ex-wife Linda's new husband Anthony Aitken and his cousin Mark Gulliford.

Judge Christopher Vosper, who bailed Riggs for a month pending a pre-sentence report, said he would consider all sentencing options.

Prosecutor Meirion Davies revealed that Riggs had a conviction for deception in 1993 when he became involved in counterfeit currency.

The following year he was back in the dock for making a false application for DSS benefits and in 2001 for forging a vehicle excise licence.