A BOASTING conman who posed for a selfie with a £37,000 gold Rolex on his wrist has been ordered to hand it over or face an extra year in prison.

Emmanuel Okunoren is already serving a four-and-a-half year sentence for a £419,000 fine wine swindle but it will be extended unless he complies with a Proceeds of Crime Act order.

He must pay the value of the watch or tell financial investigators where to find it after a judge ruled the Yellow Gold Rolex was a ‘hidden asset’.

Okunoren took the selfie of himself wearing two Rolexes on the same wrist when he was living a life of luxury on the money which he conned out of a pensioner in Devon by telling him he was investing in top-end vintage wines.

He went on expensive holidays in Dubai, spent thousands of pounds on designer clothing from Harrods and bought watches and other bling from traders in London’s Hatton Garden.

Police seized most of his assets from his luxury flat in London and a safety deposit box at a bank but only found one of the two Rolexes which he was wearing in the photo on his phone.

They found the other one, a Rosy Gold Rolex valued at £20,000, recovered the guarantee certificate for both in the deposit box but have not traced the £37,000 watch.

Okunoren appeared at a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Exeter Crown Court by video link from HMP Ford and claimed the watch in the selfie was a ‘master copy’ replica which he had bought in Dubai.

He said he had traded in the real watch at a stall in the Heart of Hatton Garden market but did not know the name of the dealer and had not kept the receipt.

He also claimed that he had to accept a reduced price because he had lost the guarantee certificate, which he later found in his car and put in the safety deposit box.

Judge Peter Johnson rejected his account. He said: “I found him (Okunoren) an unconvincing witness. His evidence of what happened to the watch implausible.

‘I am very close to being sure that he is still in possession of the yellow gold Rolex.’

The judge made an order that Okunoren’s benefit from crime was £419,081.39 and that the available amount, including the gold Rolex was £134,595.78. He told him to pay this amount within three months or serve a further 12 months in jail in default.

Mr Ian Graham, prosecuting, said the £20,000 watch and other assets were seized when Okunoren was arrested in October 2020 and his deposit box was recovered the next month.

The value of the other realisable assets had been agreed, but may be adjusted when they are sold.

Okunoren told the judge that the Rolex in the selfie was a fake which he threw away because it broke between him buying it in Dubai in August 2020 and the police raid two months later.

He said the original had been traded in for the other Rolex which he was wearing and the fake was identifiable because of the poor quality of its bezel.

University dropout Okunoren, aged 28, of London, admitted fraud and was jailed for four and a half years at Exeter Crown Court last December.