A decorator who stole three watches worth more than £30,000 from the Duke of Westminster’s home has been told he “escaped prison by the skin of your teeth”. Matthew Turner, 24, was given a 20-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Chester crown court after admitting the burglary of three watches from Hugh Grosvenor’s bedroom while he was doing renovation work at Eaton Hall in August 2022. The court heard Turner, who was addicted to cocaine at the time, took a Cartier London Tank JC watch, bought for £18,000, a Panerai Luminor Marina watch, worth £7,000, and a Breitling watch, bought for Grosvenor’s 21st birthday by his mother and late father and worth about £7,000. The burglary was revealed only when Harry Fane, who sold the Cartier watch to Grosvenor, spotted it for sale on an auction website in November that year in what was described in court as an “astonishing coincidence”. The other two watches had never been recovered, the court heard. In a statement read to the court, Grosvenor said the watches were “of huge sentimental value, beyond their financial worth”. He added: “My bedroom is a private, extremely personal space within my home. I feel very uncomfortable knowing someone who is trusted to do a job has entered my room and stolen my personal possessions.” During sentencing, Judge Everett told Turner: “You have escaped prison by the skin of your teeth.” He said it was clear Turner had declined to tell police where the other two watches were. “You made that decision not to, suggesting at least one of the watches went to your drug dealer.” At the time of the offence, Turner was employed by a firm that had worked on Grosvenor’s estate, south of Chester, for more than 50 years and were “well and truly trusted” by the family, the court heard. Grosvenor, 32, is one of the UK’s richest men and is godfather to Prince George. He inherited his family’s billion-pound fortune and estate when his father, Gerald, died in 2016. Myles Wilson, defending, said Turner had been spending hundreds of pounds on cocaine. “It’s a typical scenario where his debts increase, his dealers become more desperate, he becomes more desperate and he’s committed crime and really self-destructed,” Wilson said. Peter Hussey, prosecuting, said Turner had admitted a separate offence of theft after stealing £60 from the wallet of a colleague, Callum Parry, while working at Top Gear Tyres, in Ellesmere Port, in December 2022. Everett said although the financial backgrounds of both victims were “entirely different” the end result was the same. Turner, who was supported in court by his father and stepmother, nodded in the dock when told he must complete 200 hours of unpaid work and 30 days of rehabilitation. The judge ordered him to pay £500 compensation to Parry but said no order he could make could “possibly compensate” for the loss to Grosvenor.