Met Police Say Covert Operation Has Halved Luxury Watch Thefts

A covert police operation in London involving undercover officers flaunting manufacturers resembling Rolex within the hope they’d be focused by criminals has helped reduce luxurious watch robberies by almost half, Scotland Yard has stated.

Metropolitan law enforcement officials loitered across the capital’s most swish nightclubs and eating places and lured would-be robbers by posing with timepieces value tens of hundreds of kilos.

When anybody tried to steal the watches they had been arrested by hidden officers mendacity in wait, present movies from covert operations in Soho that had been proven to reporters on Tuesday.

The operation helped to cut back annual watch robberies from 113 to 55 within the yr to July 2023 in three central London boroughs: Westminster; Kensington and Chelsea; and Hammersmith and Fulham, police figures present.

In two operations over a number of months in 2022 and 2023, 27 folks had been arrested. Of those 21 had been later convicted, based on figures supplied on the briefing.

Ben Russell, the Met’s commander for intelligence, paid tribute to the braveness of the undercover officers concerned. He stated: “This was a profitable operation, primarily right down to the bravery of our officers who volunteered to face alone in darkish streets in the midst of the night time, ready to be robbed.”

Watch robberies usually happen in trendy neighbourhoods between 11pm and 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, the figures present. Thieves goal luxurious Swiss manufacturers worn by the wealthy, based on Russell.

He stated: “These criminals are hanging outdoors bars and golf equipment as folks depart these venues, hoping to focus on individuals who could also be intoxicated and due to this fact weak.

“They’re additionally pinpointing areas in and round Westminster — resembling Soho, Kensington and Chelsea, as they know folks journey there to take pleasure in themselves, and that these individuals are usually fairly prosperous and so could also be carrying good watches.

“They’re searching for any luxurious watch that may be resold for a excessive worth. There isn’t one explicit model that stands out — however you see the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe … They are often value something from £10,000 to upwards of £100,000.”

The operation got here after various celebrities, together with the boxer Amir Kahn and the singer and broadcaster Aled Jones, had been robbed of their luxurious watches.

Russell urged the general public to weary of thieves and put on lengthy sleeves to cowl watches whereas strolling on the road.

He stated: “We predict that is an organised crime, but it surely’s fairly opportunistic. There are teams of younger males, primarily of their 20s and 30s, hanging round outdoors bars and golf equipment recognizing folks, and so they know what they’re searching for.

“They’re not stealing folks’s fakes — they’re focusing on unique, real, costly watches. They’re getting proper up in folks’s faces, they’re man-handling victims, they’re spending fairly a little bit of time speaking to victims to ensure they know what they’re stealing.”

By Matthew Weaver

Be taught extra:

Rolex Thefts on Rise as Luxury Watches Worth £1 Billion Missing

The Watch Register, an organization that helps establish stolen timepieces, reported a 60 p.c improve in watch theft in 2022 over the earlier yr.