Joey Essex robbed of his £10K Rolex at knifepoint

Joey Essex was reportedly robbed at knifepoint yesterday (Tuesday) by two men who faked being fans of his hit show The Only Way Is Essex.

The 21-year-old club promoter was thrown to the ground by two men who he had agreed to take a photo with in Hammersmith.

The reality star believes he was followed by two muggers who recognised his car from the ITV2 show.

The two criminals posed as TOWIE fans and asked Joey for a photo with them as he tried to find a parking space in Hammersmith, West London.

After agreeing to the ruse, Joey was throw to the ground and his £10,000 gold watch was ripped off his wrist.

Speaking on Daybreak this morning, Joey said: ‘Obviously it’s an everyday occurrence for me to get asked for a picture when I’m walking down the street, and I got asked for a picture. I said, “Yeah, that’s cool,” and then as I turned around they sort of just jumped me.

‘It’s like a normal thing for me to asked for a picture, so I thought nothing of it. It was just two normal men walking down a road, like 35-year-olds.’

Joey added: ‘As I got up I was sort of self defending myself, and then they got the watch – they had a knife.’

The TOWIE star added that he thinks the reason he was targeted was because the men were ‘jealous’ of his situation.

He said: ‘People notice who we are, sometimes they see us…I don’t know, it’s all to do with jealousy and things like that in the end. People just react in different ways I suppose.’

Following his appearance on Daybreak, for which he was sporting a shiny new watch, Joey also took to Twitter to thank fans for their support.

Joey is the latest TOWIE star to fall victim to an attack. Last year Joey’s girlfriend Sam Faiers and her sister Billie were attacked by a female gang, and Lauren Goodger had her beauty salon petrol bombed.