Ocean’s Eleven-style jewel thief jailed for gems heist
A MEMBER of an international gang of jewel thieves has been jailed for his part in a daring diamond heist.
Frenchman Mickael Jovanovic, 27, was part of a gang who tricked Mayfair jeweller Boodles to hand over gems worth £4million.
Police likened the audacious raid to the thefts portrayed in the Ocean’s Eleven film franchise, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
In March 2016, the crooks posed as Russian businessmen and struck a deal in Monaco with Boodles to buy seven diamonds – including a heart-shaped jewel worth £2.2million. Days later their representative, known as Anna, was taken to the basement of the London store for a viewing.
She used a diversionary telephone call to swap the gems for pebbles and slipped the stones into pre-cut tissue paper. She then placed the gems inside boxes that she later slipped to one of the gang waiting outside.
They split up and returned to France within three hours. The deception was uncovered the next day when Boodles staff X-rayed a bag thought to contain the jewels and discovered the pebbles.
CCTV showed Jovanovic and another man, Christophe Stankovic, carried out surveillance on Boodles and were loitering nearby on the day of the theft.
Two women acted as lookouts for Anna while another waited with a change of clothes at a pub.
Stankovic was caught and jailed in 2016. Jovanovic, from Paris, was extradited from Italy in January and admitted conspiracy to steal. He was jailed for three years and eight months at Southwark crown court.
DC William Man, of the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, said: ‘Like the plot of a film, this was a truly audacious crime. And whilst it has taken four years, this case does highlight that we won’t give up.’