British Police Arrest Two Perpetrators Of Luxury Watch Specialist Crimes In London's Elite Area

Rolex watch illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Ralf Roletschek)

JAKARTA - Two men were arrested and sentenced to prison, for being caught committing violence and taking Rolex watches from victims in the elite London, England area.

Nizar Msaad (22) and Shaquille Allen (26) who pleaded guilty, used machetes to threaten their victims and fled with a moist after stealing watches from men in high-end areas in the British capital, causing the victim to suffer injuries to his hands.

They also tried to steal two other luxury watches in three additional robberies, all on the same day on October 1, 2022, at a number of top London locations, including Soho, Westminster and Mayfair, quoted from The National News May 14.

The arrests of the two began when the London Police (The Met) held Operation Venice to eradicate crimes that use motorbikes, as well as hunt down the perpetrators along with the increase in street crimes.

In an attempted robbery incident on Audley Street, Mayfair, a man was approached by two men riding a motorcycle. They dropped the victim to the ground and threatened him with a machete to steal his watch.

A staff member from a nearby pub intervened and the two men fled on a motorbike. The injured victim left before the police arrived.

They were unable to track the man, but four others reported that they had been robbed or targeted by attempted robbery. That includes two men whose Rolex watches were stolen near Marylebone and Isnington.

Officers spent hours tracing CCTV footage to track down the perpetrators and follow their route through roads in London.

CCTV footage shows two attackers riding a setup with machetes, in addition to banging, kicking and hitting their victims. Police followed the robbers through CCTV until they took off their helmets, so officers could identify them.

Polisi juga menggunakan rekaman tersebut untuk menemukan moped yang digunakan melakukan aksi kejahatan, sehingga berhasil menemukan DNA Msaad dan Allen di kendaraan tersebut.

Msaad and Allen were each sentenced to 40 months in prison. However, Allen was sentenced to an additional 54 months for separate offenses.

"This is an attack of violence against innocent people in the middle of the road in downtown London. Luckily no one was seriously injured in this reckless violation," said Detective Mike Bagnall, who is part of Operation Venice.

"The investigation was thorough and detailed and we were able to track Msaad and Allen as well as build major cases against them. This is a cruel robbery and I am pleased with our determination to find those responsible for allowing us to get these two people off the streets," said Detective Bagnall.

Med London police have dedicated extra resources to combat watch crime this year. Including involving an undercover officer wearing a luxury watch late at night in downtown London, to serve as bait to attract the attention of robbers, before his colleagues make arrests during the perpetrators' action.

The number of stolen watches in England and Wales has almost doubled to 11,035 between 2015 and 2022, according to figures from Watchfinder UK, in a spike later known as the wave of "Rolexmen" crimes.

London became the target area of the perpetrators, where crime of this type jumped by 56 percent with around 6,000 watches stolen over the past year.

This increase has raised concerns among international business executives, who have voiced their concerns about visiting London's most luxurious areas for fear their expensive watches will be stolen.

Earlier this year, the imprisonment of Algerian watch thieves revealed a network of crimes operating from North Africa to England to carry out robbery.