Armed gang raid thug to appeal conviction and 18-year sentence
BY ALAN McEWEN alan.mcewen@reachplc.com A CAREER criminal jailed for 18 years over a £500,000 heist at one of Scotland’s top hotels has made a bid for freedom.
Richard Fleming was part of a three-man gang who stole dozens of Rolex watches from a Mappin & Webb boutique at Gleneagles Hotel last June.
Fleming and fellow armed robber Liam Richardson were sentenced in October for the raid, which frightened staff believed was a “terrorist attack”.
Lawyers for the 42-yearold are appealing against his conviction and the length of his sentence.
An appeal court spokeswoman confirmed the appeal had been lodged.
She said no appeal had been lodged for Richardson, 30.
During the trial, the High Court in Edinburgh heard the robbers were dressed in black.
Fleming, of London, threatened employees with a gun, a machete and hammers.
The highly planned raid at the hotel near Auchterarder, Perthshire, lasted for less than three minutes.
The gang fled in an Audi sports car which they dumped nearby.
They had taken 50 out of 51 Rolex watches on display at the boutique. The watches, which had a value of £516,750, have never been recovered.
The trio drove to Glasgow in a Range Rover Evoque, which had been stolen earlier in London.
Police tracked down Fleming and Richardson after finding their getaway vehicle burned out in a cemetery in Glasgow’s east end.
Detectives pored over CCTV recordings and studied mobile phone records, which placed Fleming and Richardson at the crime scene.
Fleming claimed he was innocent and was buying drugs in Parkhead, Glasgow, at the time of the robbery,
Richardson, of London, pled guilty to armed robbery at the start of his accomplice’s trial.
The jury found Fleming, who was born in Glasgow, guilty of three charges. He was given an 18-year sentence with an extended period of licence of three years.