‘Lost key card’ scam behind hotel raids

 A serial burglar told hotel staff he had lost his key card so he could let himself into rooms and steal valuables worth more than £67,000.

Jake Simms, 22, pretended he was a hapless guest to raid rooms at top hotels across London.

Simms stole £6,500 of jewellery worth from the Grosvenor Hotel in Buckingham Palace Road on July 1 after telling an unwitting worker: “Oh s--t, can you let me in my room? I lost my key card.”

Using the same line, four days later he stole money from the Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge, and cash and watches worth £57,000 from the Westbury Hotel, in Mayfair, on July 6.

Simms, of St-leonards-on-sea, East Sussex, admitted three counts of burglary and breaching a criminal behaviour order by entering hotels from which he was barred when he appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court. He was remanded to appear at Southwark Crown Court for sentence at a date to be fixed.