‘Walter Mitty’ crook caught out on
A GREEDY ‘Walter Mitty’ supermarket employee not only staged a fake robbery at the Asda where he worked, but STABBED himself... and then tried to sue his bosses for not keeping him safe. And almost a year later, Graham Chilton disguised himself to raid the safe again.
But the web of lies unravelled thanks to his Facebook photograph (left) and a twist of fate as the store was refurbished three months after the second ‘robbery’, a court heard.
Chilton, from Hazel Grove, falsely claimed two armed and masked men had attacked him and made off with more than £15,000 in the first incident.
Ten months later he sneaked into the cash room at the store in Poynton using a colleague’s pass and stole a further £13,500.
AGREEDY ‘Walter Mitty’ supermarket employee not only staged a fake robbery at the Asda where he worked, but STABBED himself and claimed he was the victim – then tried to sue his bosses for not keeping him safe.
And almost a year later, Graham Chilton disguised himself to shamelessly raid the safe again.
His web of lies unravelled thanks to his own Facebook photograph and a twist of fate when the store was refurbished three months after the second incident, a court heard.
Chilton, from Hazel Grove, falsely claimed two armed masked men had attacked him and made off with more than £15,000.
Ten months later he sneaked into the cash room at the store in Poyn- ton, Cheshire and, using an unsuspecting colleague’s access code, stole a further £13,500.
Sending him down, a judge said: “You are nowhere near as good a liar as you think you are.”
A Facebook picture showed Chilton posing in his distinctive red cycling top and blue and white helmet. CCTV images showed the thief wearing almost identical clothing and shiny black shoes – footwear for which he was particularly known.
And three months later, while the store was being revamped, bolt cutters and the CCTV hard-drive which had vanished after the so-called robbery was found discarded on a shelving unit – plainly revealing Chilton spraying paint over the CCTV cameras and using the cutters to disconnect their leads.
Jailing him for three years and eight months, a judge has described the 54-year-old dad-of-two as ‘dishonest and devious’.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Chilton had even stabbed himself in the chest to authenticate his story about the armed robbery and then had ‘the temerity’ to sue his employers, Asda, for failing to protect him at work.
The civil claim was later dropped.
He was on paid sick leave for six months recovering from the ‘psychological effects’ of the alleged ordeal and had only been back at the store for four months when he struck again.
Chilton pleaded guilty to stealing the £15,875 on April 14, 2013 and attempting to pervert the course of justice by making a four-page false report about the raid to police.
But he brazenly maintained he had been forced to act under duress by a gang who had threatened to harm his family. He pleaded not guilty to the second raid that took place on February 3, 2014.
A jury took just under three hours to find him guilty of that offence, charged as burglary.
Chilton, of Kings Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, admitted he had gone to the Park Lane store where he was then shift leader early on a Sunday morning wearing a balaclava and armed with a paint spray can and bolt cutters.
Recorder Mark Rhind pointed out his false police report wasted hundreds of police man hours and had caused concern in the small local community.
He said: “It seems to me you are something of a Walter Mitty character.”
Chilton had been assisting at Hazel Grove Primary School helping children with special needs.