Two men jailed for smash and grab robbery of Ishtar Jewellers, London

Two men have been jailed at Southwark Crown Court for a ‘smash and grab’ robbery at a jewellers in Kilburn Lane, W9.

Jake Maunders, 20 of Tollbridge Close, W10 and Alex Rogers, 20 of Sutton Way, W10, pleaded guilty on 6th December 2011 to the robbery at Ishtar Jewellers in Kilburn Lane, W9 and were sentenced yesterday (8, February).

Jake Maunders was jailed for five years and twenty weeks and Alex Rogers was jailed for four years.

On 17th June 2010, the two men, accopanied by two other unknown persons, entered the store at 11:35hrs when they seized £24,992 of gold jewellery and terrified staff inside the store.

As the staff were working inside the premises, two motorbikes both carrying a pillion passenger mounted the pavement outside the store.

The two pillion passengers got off the bikes and began using sledgehammers to smash their way into a side window. They were joined by a rider of one of the bikes. The three men were able to make holes in the toughened glass, and physically hold up the shutters to the shop. The whole robbery took just two minutes.

The men then got back onto the bikes and fled across Kilburn Lane towards Harrow Road. Police attended with both Rogers and Maunders being detained near by. The second bike, which had the pillion carrying the bag full of the stolen items made off. These suspects have not yet been identified and the property has not been recovered.

Following their arrests, Maunders was found in possession of £4470.00 in cash, new property to the value of £1740 and receipts showing cash spending between the 11th June and 17th June of £1309 in designer outlets within West London.

On 11th June 2010 Ishtar Jewellers was the victim of a similar incident when two bikes with four people stole over £100,000 worth of jewellery following another smash and grab raid. It is believed that the same bikes, and some of the same people involved in this offence, were later involved in the offence on the 17th June 2010. The property stolen from this offence, and suspects, remain outstanding.

Officers from Westminster are dedicated to tackling smash and grab crimes. Working with colleagues from other boroughs, West End businesses and the New West End Company, the officers have been leading a co-ordinated response to this type of offence since March 2009, resulting in the conviction of 52 individuals in connection with smash and grabs.

Detective Constable Jamie Hunter of the Westminster Crime Squad, said: "Today’s result is another success in our ongoing operation to tackle smash and grabs, not just in the West End but across London.

"By getting these two men off the streets I am sure we have prevented a significant number of further smash and grabs from occurring in central London and, in the process, helped to reassure West End and London retailers that we take this problem very seriously and are continuing to reduce the number of incidents that occur."