Gucci heir’s handbags nabbed in £30k raid
BURGLARS stole £30,000 worth of handbags and a Range Rover from the British home of Guccio Gucci – the great-grandson of the fashion brand’s founder.
Two men broke into the 61-year-old’s £3.2million family house in Notting Hill, west London, on February 22, by sticking their hands through the letterbox to open the front door, neighbours said.
They swiped the spare keys to Mr Gucci’s Range Rover Evoque and carried the designer handbags out in a large basket, a witness said.
Three weeks after the raid, thieves returned to take the car, and Maximillion McKenzie-Watkins, 22, was arrested the same day after he ran a red light in the stolen vehicle and narrowly missed a moped driver. He was jailed for four years at Isleworth Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to handling the stolen Range Rover, stealing £6,500 worth of computers from Ashbourne Sixth Form College in January, dangerous driving and drugs offences at an earlier hearing.
A neighbour of Mr Gucci said she phoned police when she saw two young men sticking their hands through the letterbox on February 22.
She added: ‘They both had tracksuits on. I rang the police and saw them come out with a big basket full of stuff they’d stolen.
‘The police were just too late and they were gone by the time they arrived.’
A friend of Mr Gucci said: ‘It is incredible the amount they were able to steal – his wife is a designer for Gucci and she does have a huge amount of handbags.’ A man at Mr Gucci’s home said the burglary was ‘awful’ and did not wish to comment further.
Fashion heir Mr Gucci, named after his great-grandfather who founded the world famous design label, has been caught up in the infamous rifts that have plagued the Italian fashion dynasty.
He worked for the family label for 12 years until 1989 when he went to work for his father’s Giorgio G handbag line before setting up his own brand ToBeG in 2008.
In 2012 an Italian judge ruled against him and his brother Alessandro for illegitimately using the names Gucci and Guccio Gucci when marketing ToBeG products, finding there was an ‘unfair association’ between the brand and the Gucci trademark.
Mr Gucci’s great-grandfather, also named Guccio, founded the House of Gucci in Florence in 1921 after he was inspired by the elegant luggage of guests he met while working as a lift boy at London’s Savoy hotel.
It is now one of the world’s most recognisable high-end brands, with the company raking in revenues in excess of £10billion.