Dean Dinan breaking into the shop. Image: Met Police
Two men who carried out a ‘smash and grab’ raid lasting just over one minute at a Mayfair luxury goods store have been jailed at Blackfriars Crown Court.
They were caught on CCTV stealing luxury handbags worth £74,000.
Both young men were sentenced on Friday, 22nd May, after pleading guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court on 24th April.
The Raid
At around fifty minutes past midnight on 11 December 2014, nine men on six stolen motorbikes made their way to the Loewe store on Mount Street, Mayfair.
As the gang approached the shop, the front door was rammed open and a number of the men stormed in.
Within moments of entering they started to grab luxury handbags from the shelves.
The men managed to steal 57 handbags with a total value of £74,035 in a spree that lasted no more than one minute and nine seconds.
As the gang fled with their haul, one of the handbags was dropped and was later recovered at the scene by detectives.
The gang made good their escape riding off towards Oxford Street.
The Investigation
Detectives from the Met’s Flying Squad launched the intelligence led operation as part of Operation Morguld – the wider operation investigating robberies across the Capital in 2014.
The following morning, detectives carrying out enquiries into the smash and grab recovered 37 of the handbags at Dinan’s home address.
Present at the address was Furtado who claimed that he was visiting someone at the address but refused to name who.
Furtado was arrested for handling stolen goods.
On 21 December 2014, Dinan was also arrested for the same offence.
Detectives continued to carry out extensive CCTV enquires and were able to establish that both Dinan and Furtado were involved in the smash and grab and not just responsible for handling stolen goods.
CCTV showed Dinan wearing a parka style coat with a fur-lined hood and black crash helmet and Furtado wearing a black coat and a multi-coloured crash helmet during the burglary.
With the two wearing such distinctive clothing, detectives were able to go through CCTV footage and track their movements to Dinan’s home address following the burglary.
Furtado was arrested on 21 January 2015 for conspiracy to burgle and Dinan was arrested on 2 February 2015 for the same offence. On 24 April both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle.
Officers were unable to recover the outstanding 19 bags that were stolen.
Detective Constable Phelim Redmond from the Flying Squad said:
There are still a number of people outstanding that are wanted in connection with the incident. Our investigation remains open and dedicated officers will continue to trace the others responsible.
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