CCTV catches horror of armed jewel raid
SHOCKING CCTV footage has emerged of the moment two armed robbers posed as customers at a jeweller before overpowering staff by wielding a handgun and lump hammer.
The smartly dressed pair shook hands with jeweller Ben-Simon Charles before sitting down at a desk with him.
They were shown two luxury watches worth £50,000 each.
Without warning one of them stands up, pulls out a pistol and his accomplice grabs Mr Charles and the manager in a headlock while threatening to kill them.
The robber, holding the a hammer, threatens a third employee before smashing the reinforced glass of display cabinets to get to more expensive watches. After 90 seconds the two robbers flee the store and escape in a getaway car.
But a quick-thinking member of the public made a note of their licence plate and the pair were caught by armed police less than a mile from the scene in Bournemouth. Mustafa Ali, 25, and Michael Adiat, 23, both from east London, have now been jailed for 16 years and 12 years respectively for the robbery.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard the two men had rung ahead to Franses Jewellers on January 31 last year and arranged to look at Patek Philippe watches.
They arrived at 4.30pm and Mr Charles took them into a back room where Ali tried on two watches before pulling out the imitation gun with the valuable watch still on his wrist.
The pair fled the shop and got into a blue Ford Focus but passer-by Ellis Spiers noted the number plate and called police.
Franses was the fourth jewellery store Ali had targeted in a month-long spree, with his thefts amounting to more than £350,000 worth of jewellery.