Smash-grab robbers hurl designer watches at police in bid to escape

Watch this: Raiders threw Rolex watches at police
12 April 2012

Thieves hurled designer watches worth thousands of pounds at police officers as they tried make a getaway with a half a million pound haul.

The smash-and-grab gang stole Rolex, Tag Heuer, Gucci and Chanel watches in the raid at a shopping centre in south west London in the early hours of this morning.

The masked thieves broke into Fraser Hart Jewellers in Bentalls Shopping Centre in Kingston using sledgehammers.

Six men smashed through glass doors at around 12.30am before stealing large quantities of designer watches.

The gang threatened a security guard who tried to intervene before speeding away on three mopeds.

Alert CCTV operators spotted one of the mopeds fleeing at high speed down Dolphin Street and called in the police helcopter.

The chopper was on the scene within minutes and picked up the chase, calling in cars on the ground.

As they closed in the thieves began hurling designer watches at the officers chasing them.

Two of the gang were arrested in Sandy Lane, Sutton, after they crashed their moped.

The other two men were arrested at around 4.30am in Cecil Road, Wimbledon after a tip-off from a member of the public who spotted people with a moped acting suspiciously in the street.

Officers from Sutton were sent out to recover the watches from the street.

Four men aged 21, 26, 32 and 23 were being held in custody at Kingston Police Station. Police are still hunting the other two members of the gang who escaped on the third moped.

Detective Constable Ron Harvey, Kingston burglary squad, said: "This was an excellent Team Metropolitan Police Service effort greatly assisted by the CCTV operators and members of the public."

The raid is the latest in a series of smash and grab robberies in central London.

Police believe the men may be linked to a larger criminal gang responsible for series of similar raids across the capital.

Thieves dubbed "Fagin's kitchen" gangs, because they often include teenagers controlled by an older crime boss, have plagued police and retailers.

Wearing helmets and armed with heavy tools they use mopeds to ride close to shop windows and escape quickly through often heavy traffic.

Goods worth more than £4 million have been taken as thieves targeted Watches of Switzerland, Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana and Tiffany and Co.

In May, thieves made off with jewellery worth around £1 million from the Westfield centre in Shepherd's Bush, west London.

Sledgehammers were used to break into the complex and branches of De Beers and Tiffany & Co.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the non-emergency number on 0300 123 1212 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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