A gang of smash and grab raiders on motorbikes stole £37,000 of Rolex watches in under 60 seconds in a “well planned and audacious robbery”, a court heard.
Four men dressed in motorcycle clothing and helmets used a sledgehammer to break the reinforced glass windows of Attenborough Jewellers in Bethnal Green in October last year.
It is claimed the raid was planned by six men, including 21-year-old Jamie Hull, of Anchor Street, Bermondsey Michal Ogun, also 21, of the Albion Estate in Swan Road, Bermondsey, and a 23-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also from Bermondsey.
Stunned shop staff set off the panic alarm to bring the shutters down but the robbers managed to wedge them open with what witnesses described as a “three-foot mallet” before fleeing with three watches, leaving thousands of pounds worth of merchandise strewn across the pavement.
The Old Bailey heard how three members of the gang were spotted getting into a black Mitsubishi and a silver Toyota Corolla near the scene and minutes later were pulled over by police near Rotherhithe Tunnel.
The driver and passengers Michael Ogun and a seventeen-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested with a rucksack containing Attenborough Jewellers Rolex watch boxes, it is claimed.
In his opening statement, Prosecutor Roger Smart QC described the smash and grab as a “well planned audacious robbery.”
Hull and the 23-year-old man both deny conspiracy to commit robbery. Ogun also denies four counts of robbery before the Attenborough Jewellers raid.
Jurors heard how the seventeen-year-old and Ogun had already pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to rob the jewellers.
The trial continues.