Two Southwark men have been found guilty of being part of a gang which carried out a violent £4.1million jewellery robbery.
Ciro Troyano, 40, from Elephant and Castle and pal Oscar Hicks, also from Southwark were found guilty last week of conspiracy to rob, alongside Lewisham man Camilo Carvajal, 39, and 48-year-old Lee Jason Gardner, of Tottenham.
The gang violently attacked and robbed a salesman for the American celebrity jeweller Le Vian in a carpark in Staines-upon-Thames, leaving him with injuries to his right eye, wrist and arm.
Kingston Crown Court heard how the men set upon the salesman after he’d parked his car on the first level of a carpark at around 8.20am on May 13.
He was opening the boot to take out a suitcase containing the precious jewellery when he was hit with such force he fell to the ground, before being repeatedly punched and kicked.
The gang tore off his watch, fracturing his wrist and lower arm.
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The victim ran off, the court heard, to get help – and by the time he came back, the suitcase containing the millions-of-pounds-worth of jewellery was gone.
Footage from the carpark’s number plate scanners captured the gang’s black Mercedes C Class tearing through the exit barrier at speed shortly before the robbery.
The plates had been stolen earlier that week from a car in Lambeth, said police.
Using CCTV footage and witness statements, police were able to piece together the car’s journey in and out of Staines, alongside the four men going to-and-from the car prior to the robbery.
They also found out that the car had been previously registered to Carvajal’s partner, and a blue Ford Fiesta travelling in convoy with the Mercedes belonged to Gardner.
Troyano had travelled to Maidenhead on 12 May 2019, the day before the robbery, where the victim was displaying the Le Vian range at an Ernest Jones store, police discovered.
CCTV from the store and the shopping centre captured Troyano leaving and entering the shop and looking at a watch display.
Footage also showed that Gardner had travelled to Staines-upon-Thames on the same day to carry out a reconnaissance visit of the car park where the robbery took place.
Troyano was arrested in London in June and a search uncovered a phone, later confirmed as being the same one used during the offence.
He had been trying to sell items of jewellery to local pawnbrokers following the robbery, including two distinctive Le Vian rings.
Gardner and Carvajal were arrested after simultaneous raids on their homes on June 25.
Officers say they found a “large quantity of Le Vian jewellery, cash and mobile phones” at Gardner’s place, alongside WhatsApp messages of him trying to sell the jewellery on.
A search of Carvajal’s address uncovered a distinctive Omega pen and pair of Omega sunglasses belonging to the victim.
Meanwhile, Hicks was arrested in July in London after coppers found medication with the victim’s name on it in a bedroom drawer.
“This was a professionally planned robbery, with all four defendants playing their part to pull it off,” said Detective Sergeant Kate Hyder, of Surrey Police.
“Unfortunately, the violent and sustained attack they inflicted on the victim has had a massive impact on his life and has caused him enormous distress.
“I hope that the guilty verdicts handed out today will provide him with some form of closure and that he can finally begin to move on with his life now that all four men have been brought to justice.”
Sentencing will be at a later date.