It was a quiet Tuesday morning in Haringey, north London, when a man wearing all black rode his moped into a jewellery shop.
The operation had clearly been carefully planned. CCTV from Bilezzik on Green Lanes, which specialises in gold-plated jewellery, shows another moped driver come in after him and begin smashing the glass countertops with a sledgehammer. Two shop assistants cower behind the counter in fear before retreating into a back room.
As the thieves stuff their bags with jewellery, two other men stand guard outside, one brandishing a machete. A video taken by a neighbour from their window shows one brave member of the public approach the criminal with the nearest weapon he could find: a kitchen broom. The pair briefly duel in the middle of the road, as another onlooker lets out blood-curdling screams. Within minutes, the thieves were back on their mopeds, speeding off with their plunder. “It was like watching a movie scene, it was crazy, totally crazy,” one of the shop assistants told the Standard when the incident took place in February. The criminals have still not been found.
In recent months, a wave of high-value smash and grab raids has swept across the capital, targeting both global luxury brands and small independent jewellers. The attacks are often fast, violent and meticulously planned, with gangs using motorcycles, stolen cars and heavy tools to break into premises in a matter of seconds. In the first three months of 2026 alone there were 18 attacks across the UK, 10 involving weapons, with £3.2 million worth of valuables stolen. Seven of the attacks took place in London and are now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s elite Flying Squad. Such incidents are increasingly being captured on mobile phones and shared online, fuelling public concern about safety on high streets and in some of London’s most affluent areas.
Earlier in February, a video went viral of a similar scene in Richmond. At 10.30am on a Saturday morning, two brazen thieves approached Gregory & Co, a family-run jeweller on a paved shopping street lined with fairy lights. An onlooker filmed from inside a café as the masked robbers began smashing the windows and filling a tarpaulin Ikea bag with jewellery. “Oh for God’s sake, that’s where I get all my jewellery,” one onlooker can be heard saying, as another asks to “shut the door in case he comes in here”. The shop assistants on the other side of the window display put up a fight, hitting the thief’s hands with a jewellery box and swiping the goods into their side of the shop.
Later, the owners of Gregory & Co said that the incident had been “deeply upsetting”. Sultan Jewellers in Shepherd’s Bush and Danesh International Jewellers in Hatton Garden have been targeted in similar raids.
The surge in offences comes amid rising prices for precious metals and luxury goods, which experts say is fuelling organised crime. Gold prices have climbed dramatically in the past year, reaching an all-time high of $5,500 (£4,100) per ounce at the end of January. In times of global upheaval and political uncertainty, precious metals are considered a more secure asset as their value is intrinsic. The price of silver has also been on the rise: it peaked at £88 an ounce in January, and is now around £50 today. This makes jewellery an even more attractive target for thieves.
Sarah Staff, a former Metropolitan Police detective chief inspector who now heads the SaferGems initiative representing around 4,500 jewellers and pawnbrokers, says the scale and nature of the offending marks a significant shift.
Bilezzik Turkish gold shop on Green Lanes
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The golden prize for raiders
“I don’t think we’ve seen this level of offending for quite some time,” she says. “Gangs appear to be targeting these premises in a very deliberate way. Watches remain an attractive commodity, but with the increase in precious metal prices — gold in particular — jewellery has become even more desirable. The profits for these crimes are increasing.”
She explains that gold’s value lies not only in its price but in how easily it can be converted. “Gold is very easy to melt down. You can change its identity quickly,” she says. “With a diamond ring, the stone and the metal can be deconstructed.”
According to Staff, many of the gangs carry out careful reconnaissance in advance of a raid. They may send an associate into a shop days beforehand, posing as a customer while studying the layout of cabinets and identifying high-value items. Others will spend hours observing from outside, noting opening times, staffing levels and security procedures.
When they go in, they already know exactly what they’re going for. They will target the most valuable items first because every second counts.
Increasingly, raids are taking place during trading hours, when valuable goods are already on display. While this raises the risk of suspects being identified or challenged, it also allows them to act quickly without needing to access safes or secure storage.
The result is a series of highly visible, high-impact crimes that can unfold in less than a minute. Members of the public often try to intervene, at the risk of their own safety.
“I can understand why people would want to challenge them,” Staff says. “They see it as an attack on their high street, something that should be protected. But when offenders are carrying machetes, it’s extremely dangerous. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt.”
‘He said he’d kill me’
While London is a focal point for the raids, thieves are also targeting jewellery shops in the home counties. Earlier in March, two men on a moped pulled up to Garnier Jewellers in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and used an angle grinder to hack through the store’s protective glass window. They stole five Rolex watches from the display before walking back to their moped. Charles Pringle, who has worked in the shop for more than 43 years, went out to confront the men, despite the fact that one of them was wielding a large knife.
“We all had a go. I was out there with a Victorian truncheon that I’ve had for years under the counter,” he explained. Other bystanders tried to hurl a sandwich board and objects at them before they sped away.
Pringle added: “I didn’t think about my safety — I was a bit nervous when he confronted me with a big blade. He said he’d ‘effing kill me’. I was looking into his eyes and he was bouncing about on his feet. They were very young.”
Hertfordshire Constabulary say armed response officers arrived on scene within five minutes of a 999 call, but both men had fled. Later, a helmet and the bike were recovered on a road 1.5 miles away.
Jewellers operate in what Staff describes as a catch-22: they must remain open and welcoming to customers, while knowing that some individuals entering their premises may be planning to rob them.
“You have to open yourself up to the public,” she says. “Customers are key — but some of them will be there to steal from you. That makes staff feel very vulnerable.”
AFP via Getty Images
The psychological toll can be severe. Victims of such raids often report lasting trauma, anxiety and fear about returning to work.
In one particularly stark case, Oliver White, a 27-year-old store manager, took his own life after a £1.38 million watch robbery at the Richmond jewellers where he worked in May 2024. His death highlighted the intense pressure and emotional strain that can follow major thefts, particularly where staff feel a sense of personal responsibility.
High-value watches are often targeted by thieves due to strong demand and a thriving black market. In January, machete-wielding robbers ram-raided a Rolex Bucherer boutique next to Knightsbridge station on a moped in broad daylight, before making off with stolen goods. The store is next to One Hyde Park, a luxury apartment complex which is home to some of the most expensive flats in London.
After the attack, actor Tom Cruise moved out of his £35 million penthouse in the building, reportedly due to safety concerns. A source close to the Mission: Impossible star told the Daily Mail that Cruise “loved to take a walk around the area but it seems like Knightsbridge is becoming less safe by the week. He felt the area has declined in the past year or two.”
Similar attacks and the publicity they get have fuelled the narrative online that London is no longer a safe city for wealthy inhabitants and tourists. Katya Hills, who runs The Watch Register, the world’s largest database of lost and stolen timepieces, has helped to identify more than 5,000 valuables traced to 33 countries spanning North and South America, Europe, Asia, North Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
She says: “In the major smash-and-grabs we are witnessing, there’s as much careful planning going into the theft as there is into the disposal of stolen goods. Very often watches are taken overseas and stay ‘underground’. It can take years to locate them in different countries.”
Are police beating the thieves?
Gibbs, 43, was also involved in a raid on Clarendon Fine Art, where a paving slab was used to smash the front door before two artworks worth a combined £66,500 were stolen.
He and six accomplices, including Lee McCready — who was on licence for a previous murder conviction — have been convicted of burglary offences and were sentenced to a total of 22 years last week at Kingston crown court.
Separately, five men have been charged with conspiracy to burgle following a series of raids in central London between November 2025 and January 2026, in which around £500,000 worth of designer goods were stolen. The gang, aged between 24 and 35, allegedly drove an SUV into the windows of Saint Laurent on Old Bond Street and stole handbags worth up to £30,000. Four of the alleged thieves also targeted the Bottega Veneta and Loro Piana stores on Sloane Street.
While smash and grab incidents often circulate on social media, the Met says robbery offences have dropped by 6.9 per cent across London in the past year. “The Met remains committed to tackling issues that have a real impact on businesses and communities — including ramraids,” said Scotland Yard in a statement.
But while such brazen raids continue, the fear that they could happen anywhere, at any time, is unlikely to fade.
Additional reporting by Claudia Cockerell
