A man from Bexleyheath is facing jailed for his involvement in a series of 'aggressive smash and grab robberies'.
David Mays, 33, of Chessington Avenue, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob jewellery store Mappin and Webb in Fenchurch Street, City of London, which was raided on April 28 last year.
Mays
Met Police believe Mays threatened 'terrified' members of staff with fellow gang member Boz Burbridge, 31 from Camden, whilst armed with a sledgehammer and an axe.
He is facing jail with eight others from the burglary gang, four of whom were found guilty at Kingston Crown Court today (July 3).
They will be sentenced on July 29 and 30.
Arriving at the Selfridges burglary
At around 10.30pm on April 28 last year, gang leader Vincent Kamara, 28, of Camden, Mays, Burbridge, and Danny St Luce, 29, of Islington, drove up to the City store on two high-power motorcycles.
They used one of the bikes to burst through the doors.
Two of the men - believed to be Burbridge and Mays - ran inside, still wearing their motorcycle helmets and armed with sledgehammers and an axe.
A third man, believed to be St Luce - waited outside.
They threatened terrified members of staff before Kamara directed Burbridge and Mays towards the shop displays with the most valuable watches.
They smashed through the glass cabinets and made off with over £300,000 of Rolex watches, leaving the sledgehammers and axe behind at the scene.
The watches were dropped off at a house linked to the gang in Islington but less than three hours later, detectives from the Met’s Flying Squad swooped on the address.
In the living room, they caught Reece Dunford (above), 31 of Essex - who played a part in ten robberies - and Hatton Garden jeweller Yair Cohen (below), 71 of Hackney, red-handed, surrounded by the stolen watches with the price tags still attached.
Following their arrest, continued enquires led to the arrest of the other individuals involved in the ten incidents.
Dunford initially carried out a burglary at the warehouse of designer Alexander McQueen in 2007, in which he and accomplices made off with handbags, clothing and laptops, worth around £50,000.
He also made a name for himself by handling stolen goods, before orchestrating his own robbery which resulted in his arrest by Flying Squad detectives just hours afterwards.
Dunford was the ‘go-to’ man for handling high-value goods stolen during smash and grabs.
As payment he was offered discount items from incidents including a raid on Selfridges in Oxford Street, in which thieves dressed in burkas to escape with more than £1million worth of watches.
CCTV from the Selfridges robbery
He bought some of the watches and used Cohen - also convicted today - to sell them on.
Dunford handpicked his team of robbers, which included Mays, conscious that police had recent success in arresting smash-and-grab gangs.
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Investigating officer, Detective Constable Simon Davison of the Flying Squad, said: "These smash and grabs were aggressive.
"Sometimes, the robbers threatened innocent people with sledgehammers and axes in order to get to the goods.
“Dunford was involved in every incident in one way or another and clearly started to think he was untouchable.
"These convictions are proof that the Flying Squad will relentlessly pursue anyone who tries to make a living from crimes like these.”
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