How our open borders let Lithuanian serial robber f ly in for heist
A LITHUANIAN who flew into Britain to carry out an armed robbery has been jailed after traces of his blood were matched to crime scenes across Europe.
Rimantas Borisovas, 32, led a gang that raided the Queen’s jewellers Mappin And Webb armed with a handgun and claw hammers – months after he had been released from a German jail.
Detectives suspect they may have exploited freedom of movement rules and cheap flights to slip in and out of the UK for other smash-and-grab raids.
Borisovas escaped to Poland 24 hours after the jewellery heist – spending less than 96 hours in Britain.
In the 60-second raid, the gang took a stash of Cartier watches worth more than £125,000, which have never been found.
But last week Borisovas, who police believe is part of a major criminal gang from Eastern Europe, was brought to justice after police matched blood he left at the scene of the 2014 raid to offences carried out in Germany and Lithuania. When Borisovas flew into the UK for the first time, he had just been released early from a five-year sentence in Germany for stealing 13 BMWs.
He was deported to his homeland in 2013, then arrived in Britain on December 23 that year on a flight to Luton. Police believe the two-week trip may have been to carry out reconnaissance or even another robbery before the Mappin And Webb raid six months later.
On June 10, 2014, Borisovas, whose flights were all with Ryanair, flew into Stansted and less than 48 hours later his gang smashed their way into the Regent Street jewellers – the official silversmith to the Queen. One of the men – wearing a disguise of make-up and a curly blond wig – was invited into the store by the security guard. Once inside he pulled out a handgun and Borisovas and another man – wearing hooded tops, caps and covering their faces – burst in with claw hammers.
Borisovas took 20 Cartier watches worth £128,740 after smashing a display case with a hammer, cutting himself in the process and leaving smears of blood. The robbers, who were in the shop for less than a minute, fled in different directions.
One dashed into a nearby pub to ditch his wig and change into sports clothing before going to Waterloo, where he dumped the imitation handgun.
Police have not been able to trace Borisovas’s accomplices, but they know he flew out of Stansted the next day to Poland, landing in a city close to the Lithuanian border.
Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad asked Europol for help tracing the gang and found the blood left at the scene matched a profile on the German police’s DNA database for a Lithuanian car thief imprisoned in Germany for 13 theft offences in 2011. They also found that Borisovas had been convicted of a document fraud in 2016.
He was put on a border watchlist but it was not until he flew into Stansted from Gdansk, Poland, on November 17 last year that he was caught.
The robber, who is fluent in several languages, refused to speak to officers in custody.
But within 12 hours forensics had matched Borisovas to the blood left at the crime scene.
In December he admitted robbery and possession of a firearm and last week he was jailed for 12 years at Kingston Crown Court.
Detective Sergeant Ben Kennedy, of the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, said: ‘We believe he is part of a Pink Panther-type gang that have been able to go across country borders to target high-end jewellers.
‘We think it was highly organ- ised and they have exploited freedom- of-movement rules to fly into the country to commit crime and fly out very easily. They could have committed other offences here.
‘The Met worked with European law enforcement partners to bring him to justice and I am pleased that the lengthy custodial sentence the judge handed down reflects the seriousness of the crime.’
According to Interpol, the Pink Panther gang has stolen jewels worth more than £280million in 380 armed robberies between 1999 and 2015.
Made up of 200 ex-military personnel who are mainly from the Balkan states, the gang got its nickname after a 2003 robbery in London when a thief hid a diamond in a pot of beauty cream – similar to the plot of one of the Pink Panther films starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
‘Exploited the rules’