Good News Story

On Saturday 19th September 2020, a group of three persons consisting of a man, woman and child entered a store in Central London and requested to view prestige watches. When a sales assistant left the group for a moment, the man took a fake watch which was hidden in the hood of the child’s jacket and placed it on the table in front of him with the other watches. He then quickly removed a genuine watch from the table and concealed it inside the child’s hood. When staff conducted a stock take on Sunday 20th September 2020, it was discovered that a Audemars Piguet watch was missing and had been replaced by a 'fake' nearly identical watch.

As a result of extensive and persistent research of CCTV footage by Security staff at the store, SaferGems were given details of an Audi car bearing Romanian registration plates the suspects were observed in on Monday 14th September 2020.

Details of this vehicle were sent by SaferGems to Police authorities in Romania via the National Crime Agency who confirmed that the vehicle was registered to known criminals and provided images of the registered keepers. The images provided by the Romanian Police matched the suspects for the theft.

Details of the Audi were then flagged up by SaferGems to the Border Force Agency who placed an urgent marker on the car via the Border Force ANPR cameras which would Alert Border Force officers at Dover to intercept the vehicle. 

On the evening of Friday 25th September 2020, Police were alerted to the vehicle’s location towards Dover, an arrest team was put on standby from Kent Police and a stop implemented by Border Force Officers after the occupants attempted to leave the Country via Dover.

The occupants were arrested by Kent Police officers and confirmed to be the suspects for the theft on Saturday 19th September 2020. The stolen Audemars Piquet watch was also recovered from the male suspect who was wearing it on his wrist. The watch still had the protective plastic covering on the rear and was in good condition.

On Saturday 26th September 2020, both suspects were charged and remanded for the theft.

Statement from the Metropolitan Police: “This case is a great example of a partnership approach using the combined skills of all security agencies involved to ensure recovery of a highly valuable watch and the arrest of two very organised international career criminals. The clear and quick communications between SaferGems, Security Teams and UK law enforcement has led to this superb outcome. The watch has been recovered intact and two organised criminals arrested before they fled the country with the property. Without the input of all involved, the successful conclusion would not have been possible or at least greatly delayed. As a result of this combined effort, two arrests have been made and stolen property recovered. Without the quick actions of all concerned, these two offenders would now been out of the country and the watch to be never seen again”.