Thieves caught tunnelling into London jewellery shop after £700,000 burglary spree
A group of thieves were caught by police as they tried to tunnel their way into a jewellery shop after an investigation linked them to a spate of burglaries worth more than £700,000.
Officers caught the thieves at 3.12am on Friday July 17 as they tried to sneak into the shop in Tooting, south London.
Video showed police rumbling the suspects, who have since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal and cause criminal damage, as they retreated down the tunnel.
One, Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara, 38, was arrested in a nearby alleyway before officers tracked a second, Ioan Asafeti, 39, to a hiding place on a rooftop.
The third member of the group, Sergiu Plastin, 42, was arrested later that day as he tried to flee to Ireland from Stansted airport after officers found a car linked to the group and used mobile phone data to track him down.
Officers found bags of tools used to dig the hole in a neighbouring massage parlour, from which the group had begun tunnelling.
Led by the Metropolitan Police’s flying squad, an investigation linked the group to burglaries across London between May and July.
They mainly targeted jewellers using tunnels to access shops overnight while bypassing security systems.
The trio arrested in the tunnel raid each pleaded guilty to the same count on Friday at Kingston Crown Court.
Detective superintendent Dan Mitchell said: ’These criminals dug their own hole after emergency response officers caught them red-handed.
’Their arrests didn’t just stop this burglary. They formed part of a wider Flying Squad investigation that uncovered an organised crime group linked to a string of jewellery shop break-ins across London worth more than £700,000.
’We’re driving down commercial burglary across the capital, with offences falling by 12 per cent in the past year.
’Our message to these criminals is clear: target London businesses and we’ll hunt you down and put you before the courts.’
The Met said further enquiries had revealed possible links between the group and similar offences in Europe.
After their guilty pleas, the trio will be sentenced on October 23 at Kingston Crown Court.
A Met spokesman said the force was ’committed to tackling burglary across the capital and keeping Londoners safe’.
’Commercial burglary offences fell by 12.1 per cent in the 12 months ending July, compared with the previous 12 months.
’The Met has also put hundreds more officers on the frontlines of community crime-fighting teams, upping visible patrols in the right "hot spots" so they can catch criminals.’
Head of Investigations
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