Rising cases of people being mugged for their expensive watches are damaging London’s international reputation.
On a trip to India this week, Labour’s David Lammy, visiting as shadow foreign secretary to work on trade deals, was confronted by senior executives in the country on their concerns about being mugged in Mayfair.
According to a report in the Financial Times, Devin Narang, an energy entrepreneur, told Mr Lammy: “People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair.
“All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police not responding,” he added.
Met Police have been targeting gangs who employ spotters to identify people in bars and restaurants who are wearing prized watches from the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille.
The force recently shared details and footage of how victims would then be mugged as they left their premises, usually late at night and often drunk.
Thefts from a person, the police’s term for muggings of handbags, watches and other valuables rose in London by 27% in 2023 from 57,468 to 72,756.
Westminster, which includes Mayfair, was the capital’s hot spot with a 40% rise in attacks from 18,310 in 2022 to 25,650, the Met reports.
Disgusting scumbags! I live here, and I wouldn’t risk it, anywhere, or any time of day.
5 yrs minimum imprisonment, for any lowlife, to lazy to do any work, who thinks it’s a good idea to rob people. Cowards!
This is a key reason I now mostly only wear an Apple Watch
The fact Rolex themselves flat out refuse to give details of any stolen watch serial numbers to crime prevention agencies and watch registers mean that when these watches then come up for sale, traders and the public alike could end up fuelling the demand for stolen watches without knowing. I use a company called the watch register to check when I buy a watch, which is all the due diligence I can do, if i try and contact Rolex they don’t want to know and they have a massive database of lost & stolen reported serial numbers. Disgraceful really they won’t share the details. Anything to make it harder to actually sell on these high end watches would for sure take a few vermin off the streets and lead hopefully to more convictions.