Three men have been jailed after targeting victims for their expensive watches in London's Rolex Ripper crime wave.
They struck in upmarket areas of the British capital, including one attack outside a Rolls-Royce showroom in Stratton Street, Mayfair.
Metropolitan Police detectives used CCTV to identify the trio of violent repeat offenders who carried out two robberies on consecutive days.
They discovered the men had been carrying out surveillance on their victims before pouncing. In a well-honed tactic, spotters identify a likely victim wearing a watch worth stealing in a public area, follow them and call in accomplices on scooters or a car to carry out the theft.
In this case, victim Michail Rivas was surrounded by the men, with their faces covered, who jumped out of a white BMW and grabbed his Mido Baroncelli Moonphase Chronograph watch worth £1,000.
The robbers, Tedros Haile, Mahad Jammeh and Christian Whittingham, carried out another attack later the same night, targeting Mark Jackson and Oliver Wragg in nearby Brewer Street, Soho.
The victims were wearing short-sleeved tops, which put their expensive watches on show. Mr Jackson was hit on the head with a hard object then punched several times. His £600 Audermars Piguet replica watch was taken.
At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir said the men “were clearly looking to identify members of the public wearing valuable wrist watches”.
The number of watches stolen in England and Wales almost doubled to 11,035 a year between 2015 and 2022, according to figures from Watchfinder UK, in a surge that became known as the Rolex Ripper crime wave.
London is the centre, with a 56 per cent rise in thefts and 6,000 watches stolen last year alone.
International business executives have voiced concern about visiting even the most high-end parts of the city for fear their expensive watches will be stolen.
Last year, the jailing of Algerian watch thieves exposed a crime network operating from North Africa to the UK to carry out the lucrative robberies.
Using background details provided by the Met Police about the Algerian-led gang, court documents and coverage of their trial, as well as speaking to experts, The National pieced together how they went about their work and how the booming market in stolen watches drew them to the streets of London.
The Met has been trying to curb the robberies by targeting hotspots with increased patrols.
In a statement about the recent attacks, the force said: “Three victims across Stratton Street and Brewer Street were threatened with violence as they tried to prevent the robbers from making off with their high-value watches – two of which were stolen.”
It said the offenders were arrested on July 30 and clothing worn at the time of the offences was recovered, linking them to the crimes.
Det Insp Lizzie Beeston, who led the Met’s investigation, said tackling violent crime was a priority for the police force.
“Every robbery has a significant impact on the victim. This is a violent crime that leaves a significant, lasting effect on the victim,” she added.
Haile, 35, of Hammersmith, was jailed for 11 years after admitting one robbery and being found guilty of one robbery and one attempted robbery. Mahad Jammeh, 24, of Enfield, was sentenced to eight years and Christian Whittingham, 27, of Uxbridge, received 10 years and six months for the same offences.
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
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The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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