‘We thought t moment Role
Facing jail, armed gang who staged two-minute smash and grab robbery to net £½m of watches
A SCOT who was part of a gang who stole Rolex watches worth £500,000 in an armed heist at Scotland’s most famous hotel was last night facing jail.
Career criminals Richard Fleming, 42, and Liam Richardson, 30, used a machete, hammers and a gun during the raid at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel last year.
The pair were part of a threeman gang who stole dozens of luxury watches from the Mappin & Webb boutique at the £400-anight spa and golf resort.
Such was the ferocity of the raid that guests and staff at the hotel later told police they thought they were in the midst of a terrorist attack. Shocking CCTV images released yesterday show the gang threatening staff and using hammers to smash cabinets displaying rare watches in the terrifying raid, which lasted around two minutes. They are seen pointing a gun at security staff, before shattering the jewellery cases and sweeping their expensive haul into black bags.
One security guard refused to back down despite having a gun pointed at him twice, and chased the gang as they made their way to a getaway car.
But the gang’s use of stolen vehicles ended up being Fleming and Richardson’s downfall as a ‘painstaking’ police probe traced a burned-out Range Rover used in the raid back to them.
Fleming maintained he was innocent and claimed that at the time of the robbery he was buying drugs in Glasgow.
However, a jury rejected the Glaswegian’s claims and found him guilty of two charges of assault and one of robbery. Londoner Richardson entered a plea of guilty to armed robbery at the start of the court proceedings and was remanded in custody.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Patrick, who led the investigation, said: ‘The firearms and the violence displayed by those two men when committing the crime led staff and witnesses to think that what they were about to witness was a terrorist attack.
‘Gleneagles, due to its isolated location... people tend to go there to relax. I think this attack would have shocked members of the public and also the staff. People were clearly traumatised by what took place.
‘The firearms and the levels of violence displayed show the background that these people have. I don’t know whether they are members of a gang but I know they have a propensity for violence and that what happened at Gleneagles last year was at the extreme level.’
The hotel is set within an 850acre estate in the heart of Perthshire, and its remote location is thought to be one of the reasons the gang targeted it.
It is believed Fleming scouted
‘Traumatised by what took place’
the hotel, knowing it catered for wealthy guests.
The CCTV footage shows Fleming and his accomplices running into the hotel and confronting staff with a gun.
Louis Hutchison, 48, was on duty at the time as a concierge.
In evidence he said: ‘I looked up and there was a masked man standing there. He was wearing black overalls and had on a full face mask. He had a bag over his shoulder. He threatened me. He said “move and you’re deid”.’
Mr Hutchison said the man pointed a ‘black automatic’ gun at him. ‘I just stood still. I was startled. I was shocked.’
The footage then shows the men threatening members of staff.
Security supervisor Euan Wishart told the court how he was twice threatened with a gun during the raid as the men smashed up glass display cabinets.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard the gang had taken 50 of the 51 Rolex watches on display. The watches, worth £516,750, have not been recovered.
Describing the moment Fleming pointed the weapon at him for the first time, Mr Wishart, a former police officer, said: ‘He said something along the lines of – and you must excuse my language – “f*** off. Call the police and I will kill you”. All three were male. They were smashing up the display cabinets in the shop with red handled hammers.
‘They were wearing “Morph” style suits – one piece suits which covered their faces.’
Mr Wishart followed Fleming and his sidekicks as they left the scene in a high-powered Audi which they dumped nearby.
The trio then drove to Glasgow in a stolen Range Rover Evoque. Fleming and Richardson torched the car then took a train to London.
But police tracked them down after finding the burned-out 4x4 in a cemetery in Glasgow’s East End a few days later.
Detectives trawled through ‘tens of thousands of hours’ worth of CCTV footage and studied mobile phone records which placed Fleming and Richardson at the scene.
Detectives also found Fleming had been in touch with Richardson and another man, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court heard Fleming had a 24-year criminal history, including for a firearms offence while Richardson has convictions for dishonesty and violence.
Fleming, who was born in Glasgow but moved to London as a child, had returned to see his family in Scotland in early June 2017.
On June 12, he and another man drove from Glasgow to St Andrews, Fife, where he broke into two houses and stole jewellery worth thousands of pounds and designer handbags and sunglasses.
Fleming pleaded guilty to the St Andrews break-ins.
Judge Lady Carmichael deferred sentence on the pair until next month and Fleming was remanded in custody
A Gleneagles spokesman said: ‘We welcome the jury’s decision. We would like to thank Police Scotland for their dedicated efforts throughout the investigation.’
‘A propensity for violence’