Around £1million worth of luxury watches are snatched from the wrists of Londoners every month, police said after a 'ripper' gang was jailed. There were nearly 2,000 robberies across Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster between January and June this year alone.
Hotspots and violent tactics
Hotspots include Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Scotland Yard said there were 97 watch robberies, including attempts, in the same period, totalling 'millions of pounds of stolen property'. Many involve the use of violence, with victims 'punched and kicked and injured'. One in five involved the threat of a knife.
Jailed gang and victim's ordeal
The alarming figures emerged at the sentencing of Younes Djoudi, Ali Eldahouzze and Abdel El Habchi at Southwark Crown Court. The trio admitted robbing Romanian entrepreneur Catalin Botezatu's diamond-encrusted, £137,000 Richard Mille watch just before midnight on January 28. Mr Botezatu said he 'feared for his life' as he was ambushed after leaving Latin American restaurant Amazonico in Berkeley Square.
Prosecutor Arizuna Asante said the muggers 'lay in wait' and 'surrounded' Mr Botezatu before using a 'sharp implement' to hack through the rubber strap and take the timepiece. The businessman later told the court: 'I couldn't believe that something like this could happen in London, in front of a luxury restaurant where I was a client.'
'I feared for my life because of my cancer operation and because I have five stents and because the slightest blow or cut, God forbid, where I was operated, could have been fatal.'
Sentences and wider concern
Djoudi, 34, was jailed for five years and nine months, Eldahouzze, 22, was handed three years and six months, and El Habchi, 30, received five years and six months. Sentencing them, Judge Dafna Spiro said London ought to be a 'safe city', adding: 'We are privileged to attract people such as Catalin Botezatu.'
She added: 'It is a shame and a blight on our city that robberies of this kind occur and unsurprising that he has been deterred from returning as a result.' The judge said robberies of expensive watches are 'an all too familiar feature' of criminality in London and that they 'undermine public confidence and damage the reputation' of the city.
Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells wrote in a statement referred to in court: 'Despite all of our efforts, high value watch robbery remains a problem in the West End, and we average about £1 million stolen from the wrists of Londoners and visitors every month.' A third of watch robberies have occurred 'in the West End footprint' and mainly centre around the night-time economy, with suspects often 'targeting various property from victims', he said.
