‘Fantastic luck’ helped police catch gang suspected of high-profile robberies

A piece of “absolutely fantastic luck” helped detectives catch a violent gang after police raided a jewellers 15 minutes after stolen goods from a footballer’s house were dropped off at the premises.

Nottinghamshire Police requested a search warrant for Paris Jewels in Hatton Garden, London, after identifying links between the shop and the theft of the Portland Tiara from Nottinghamshire in 2018.

The force were unaware of any links to a tie-up robbery at the home of former Derby County midfielder Tom Huddlestone, which had taken place the night before in Caythorpe, Nottinghamshire, when they entered the shop on May 2, 2019 .

Detective Inspector Gayle Hart, who led the investigation, said officers found a bag of stolen high-value goods – which included an FA Cup runners-up medal.

Speaking about the execution of the warrant, DI Hart said “We actually identified a jewellers we thought was likely to be involved."

Whilst investigating Paris Jewels, officers manage to recover "stolen property, which we later identified as the majority of the stolen property from the Caythorpe burglary," he said.

“So we recognised that actually that was a burglary in Nottinghamshire, a tie-up robbery, and that the goods had turned up within 12 hours at Paris Jewels.

“So that opened the investigation up really to look at what other burglaries had happened in Nottinghamshire and their movements within London, and we found that there was a significant pattern there.

“That then opened it up around other suspects involved.”

“It was a bit of absolutely fantastic luck."

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