Met Police: about £1m of luxury watches stolen monthly in West End, court told at sentencing

Mixed · 2Scotland Yard says luxury watch thieves steal an average of about £1m worth of watches a month from Londoners and visitors in the West End. 1 2 Mixed · 2The figure came from a statement by Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells, read at Southwark Crown Court, which said: "Despite all of our efforts, high-value watch robbery remains a problem in the West End, and we average about £1 million stolen from the wrists of Londoners and visitors every month." 1 2 Mixed · 2Metropolitan Police figures put to the court showed 97 watch robberies or attempted robberies across Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham between January and June 2026, which Metro reported Scotland Yard described as totalling "millions of pounds of stolen property". 1 2

Mixed · 2The Evening Standard added that police said a further 70 expensive watches were stolen between July and September; Metro did not report this. Metro separately reported nearly 2,000 robberies of all kinds across the three boroughs in January to June, a figure the Standard did not give. 1 2 Mixed · 2Police said many victims were punched, kicked or injured, and that a knife was seen or implied in about one in five offences; Mayfair and Knightsbridge were named as hotspots, often around restaurants, hotels and the night-time economy. 1 2 Left · 1Metro reported that a third of watch robberies occurred "in the West End footprint", mainly around the night-time economy, with suspects often "targeting various property from victims". 2

Mixed · 2The statistics emerged at the sentencing of Younes Djoudi, Ali Eldahouzze and Abdel El Habchi for robbing Romanian entrepreneur Catalin Botezatu of a diamond-encrusted Richard Mille watch worth £137,000 outside the Amazonico restaurant in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, shortly before midnight on 28 January. 1 2 Mixed · 2Prosecutors said the men carried out reconnaissance, surrounded Mr Botezatu and used a sharp implement to cut through the watch strap, leaving cuts to his wrist; he told the court he feared for his life, citing a cancer operation and five stents. The watch has never been recovered. 1 2 Mixed · 2Reports differ on the pleas: the Standard said Djoudi admitted the robbery while Eldahouzze and El Habchi were convicted after a nine-day trial, whereas Metro said the trio admitted it. 1 2

Mixed · 2Metro reported the sentences: Djoudi, 34, five years and nine months; El Habchi, 30, five years and six months; Eldahouzze, 22, three years and six months. The Standard's earlier report said sentencing was due later that day. 2 1 Left · 1Judge Dafna Spiro said London ought to be a "safe city" and that such robberies are "an all too familiar feature" of criminality in London. 2