Thieves who stole £600,000 worth of luggage from St Pancras station have been jailed.
On October 16 last year, Abdel Aitkebir grabbed two suitcases from behind a taxi as luggage was being loaded into the car. Items inside the cases were worth more than £600,000.
Aitkebir, 35, was sentenced to two years and six months while Medhi Fatih, 41, was jailed for two years and four months at Inner London Crown Court on Friday. Both had pleaded guilty to one count of theft each.
Aitkebir and Fatih were spotted on CCTV scouting out the area before taking advantage of the taxi driver being distracted to grab the cases. Images were found on Fatih’s phone of some of the stolen jewellery.
Separately, Faysal Benoumechiara, 27, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison at Inner London Crown Court on Friday, having previously pleaded guilty to five counts of theft over an 11-month period.
The court heard that Benoumechiara stole luggage from trains or the backs of cars on five occasions, including grabbing a suitcase from a train luggage rack which had £60,000 worth of goods inside.
On November 4, British Transport Police officers spotted a man acting suspiciously in King’s Cross station. He was seen approaching three other men who quickly opened a rucksack and pulled out its contents. The three men, Samy Legouini, 32, Mohamed Koulai, 33, and Amine Bennari, 25, were arrested and later pleaded guilty to theft at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. All were jailed for nine months in February. The fourth man, Benoumechiara, was also arrested on suspicion of theft.
Fatih and Aitkebir, also at the station on the day, were arrested for the £600,000 luggage theft.
Detective Constable Nicholas Barr said: 'These men worked together in an organised fashion to target everyday commuters and steal their valuables, and their string of crimes caused so many victims huge amounts of stress and anxiety. Thanks to the keen eyes and awareness of our officers at King’s Cross in November last year, the group were caught red-handed. Our officers patrol the rail network every day in plain clothes to react to anything suspicious and stop offenders like these men in their tracks.'
'If you see someone acting suspiciously in stations or on trains, or if you've been the victim or witness to a theft, I urge you to report it to us by texting 61016. We take every report seriously, and just as we have in this case we’ll do everything in our power to bring thieves to justice.'
