Smart deception: £10m London jewel thieves arrived in Bentley
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]· Stylish appearance and air of affluence fooled staff [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]· Armed raiders take rings, necklaces and diamonds[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Audrey Gillan[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Wednesday July 11, 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Guardian[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
London's elegant Sloane Street
Stepping from a £118,000 chauffeur-driven Bentley Continental Flying Spur, the two gentlemen looked every bit the affluent kind of shopper welcomed through the Palladian-style doorway of Graff, the opulent jewellers on London's Sloane Street. But after passing through an airlock and past two security guards, the pair turned out to be somewhat different from the average customer, pulling a pair of silver handguns and demanding that staff hand over more than £10m worth of diamonds and gem-studded jewellery.
CCTV images released yesterday show the two robbers arriving at the Sloane Street store at 5.10pm last Thursday. One had a navy jacket, beige trousers and Panama hat while his fellow robber sported a beige suit and red tie. Pretending to be wealthy diamond buyers, they talked to staff before drawing their guns and demanding they hand over the gems.
The officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Sergeant Sarah Staff, said: "It is not every day that people use a Bentley to arrive at a premises they intend to rob. I am sure there will be people who were in the street and saw this car pull up and drop two people off. We need to identify this vehicle.
The people responsible for this robbery were wearing distinctive clothing, and we are confident that anyone in the area around Sloane Street on Thursday afternoon would have noticed them. Those caught up in the robbery have been left extremely shaken by this incident."
The men grabbed handfuls of rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings and diamonds before leaving the store and walking out on to the street. They are believed to have been aged between 40 and 55 and are described as between 5ft 10ins and 6ft and of stocky build. Images of the stolen jewels were released yesterday and show drop earrings encrusted with dozens of diamonds as well as necklaces worth more than £1m, along with rings.
Graff is one of the most famous diamond merchants in the world and its list of clients include the Beckhams, Naomi Campbell, Mike Tyson and Ivana Trump. The company - owned by Laurence Graff, known as "the King of Diamonds" - employs 70 people to make unique pieces in its London workshops, as well as 300 in South Africa. Each of its diamonds is inscribed and lasered with a code on the stone's girdle, making them easily identifiable if they were to be offered for sale on the diamond market.
Police have alerted international diamond houses and buyers. A spokeswoman for Graff said:
"Unfortunately some of these jewellery thieves are very professional. Some people can get rid of these security codes but with difficulty and it could ruin the stones. But some people are so desperate."
The robbery was the latest in a series on some of the company's London premises. In May 2003 a Serbian armed gang known as the Pink Panthers stole £23m worth of jewellery from Graff after spending just three minutes in the shop.
In 1993 three men escaped with around £7m in diamonds from the Graff workshops in Hatton Garden, the jewellery centre of London. All three, wearing baseball hats and stocking masks, carried handguns. In less than four minutes they handcuffed the four staff and emptied the safes, pocketing one diamond worth £2m alone. Earlier that year, in a raid on another Graff store in Brompton Road, west London, robbers spent several nights secretly removing bricks from the side wall. While staff were returning jewels on display to the safe, they burst out from under an illuminated cabinet and grabbed items worth £3m. The gang left no forensic or other clues behind.
In 1980 two Chicago-based gangsters stole almost £1.5m - including the 26-carat Marlborough diamond, which was worth £400,000 at the time - from Graff's Knightsbridge shop. Joseph Scalise and Arthur Rachelgot were apprehended in the United States and extradited to the United Kingdom.
Famous British robberies
Attempt to steal Millennium Star from the Dome
In 2000 12 men equipped with a bulldozer, a powerboat and wearing gas masks and body armour hurtled towards a display of diamonds in the Millennium Dome worth as much as £300m. Instead of escaping with the 203-carat Millennium Star - one of the most valuable stones cut - and 11 other "priceless" blue diamonds, they were foiled by a police sting.
Brink's-Mat
The 1983 robbery from security warehouses at Heathrow was the most spectacular in terms of monetary value that Britain had seen - 6,800 gold bars taken worth £26m
The Great Train Robbery
The August 1963 holdup of the Glasgow to London mail train netted £2.6m in used banknotes. One member of the gang was Ronnie Biggs who is still imprisoned
telegraph.co.uk
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]· Stylish appearance and air of affluence fooled staff [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]· Armed raiders take rings, necklaces and diamonds[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Audrey Gillan[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Wednesday July 11, 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Guardian[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
London's elegant Sloane Street
Stepping from a £118,000 chauffeur-driven Bentley Continental Flying Spur, the two gentlemen looked every bit the affluent kind of shopper welcomed through the Palladian-style doorway of Graff, the opulent jewellers on London's Sloane Street. But after passing through an airlock and past two security guards, the pair turned out to be somewhat different from the average customer, pulling a pair of silver handguns and demanding that staff hand over more than £10m worth of diamonds and gem-studded jewellery.
CCTV images released yesterday show the two robbers arriving at the Sloane Street store at 5.10pm last Thursday. One had a navy jacket, beige trousers and Panama hat while his fellow robber sported a beige suit and red tie. Pretending to be wealthy diamond buyers, they talked to staff before drawing their guns and demanding they hand over the gems.
The officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Sergeant Sarah Staff, said: "It is not every day that people use a Bentley to arrive at a premises they intend to rob. I am sure there will be people who were in the street and saw this car pull up and drop two people off. We need to identify this vehicle.
The people responsible for this robbery were wearing distinctive clothing, and we are confident that anyone in the area around Sloane Street on Thursday afternoon would have noticed them. Those caught up in the robbery have been left extremely shaken by this incident."
The men grabbed handfuls of rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings and diamonds before leaving the store and walking out on to the street. They are believed to have been aged between 40 and 55 and are described as between 5ft 10ins and 6ft and of stocky build. Images of the stolen jewels were released yesterday and show drop earrings encrusted with dozens of diamonds as well as necklaces worth more than £1m, along with rings.
Graff is one of the most famous diamond merchants in the world and its list of clients include the Beckhams, Naomi Campbell, Mike Tyson and Ivana Trump. The company - owned by Laurence Graff, known as "the King of Diamonds" - employs 70 people to make unique pieces in its London workshops, as well as 300 in South Africa. Each of its diamonds is inscribed and lasered with a code on the stone's girdle, making them easily identifiable if they were to be offered for sale on the diamond market.
Police have alerted international diamond houses and buyers. A spokeswoman for Graff said:
"Unfortunately some of these jewellery thieves are very professional. Some people can get rid of these security codes but with difficulty and it could ruin the stones. But some people are so desperate."
The robbery was the latest in a series on some of the company's London premises. In May 2003 a Serbian armed gang known as the Pink Panthers stole £23m worth of jewellery from Graff after spending just three minutes in the shop.
In 1993 three men escaped with around £7m in diamonds from the Graff workshops in Hatton Garden, the jewellery centre of London. All three, wearing baseball hats and stocking masks, carried handguns. In less than four minutes they handcuffed the four staff and emptied the safes, pocketing one diamond worth £2m alone. Earlier that year, in a raid on another Graff store in Brompton Road, west London, robbers spent several nights secretly removing bricks from the side wall. While staff were returning jewels on display to the safe, they burst out from under an illuminated cabinet and grabbed items worth £3m. The gang left no forensic or other clues behind.
In 1980 two Chicago-based gangsters stole almost £1.5m - including the 26-carat Marlborough diamond, which was worth £400,000 at the time - from Graff's Knightsbridge shop. Joseph Scalise and Arthur Rachelgot were apprehended in the United States and extradited to the United Kingdom.
Famous British robberies
Attempt to steal Millennium Star from the Dome
In 2000 12 men equipped with a bulldozer, a powerboat and wearing gas masks and body armour hurtled towards a display of diamonds in the Millennium Dome worth as much as £300m. Instead of escaping with the 203-carat Millennium Star - one of the most valuable stones cut - and 11 other "priceless" blue diamonds, they were foiled by a police sting.
Brink's-Mat
The 1983 robbery from security warehouses at Heathrow was the most spectacular in terms of monetary value that Britain had seen - 6,800 gold bars taken worth £26m
The Great Train Robbery
The August 1963 holdup of the Glasgow to London mail train netted £2.6m in used banknotes. One member of the gang was Ronnie Biggs who is still imprisoned
telegraph.co.uk