London's Rolex Rippers: Luxury watch thief jailed after targeting wealthy football fans

Mohamed Amoyos operated in upmarket areas, striking up conversations about football before pouncing

Mohamed Amoyos, 33, who has been jailed for four-and-a-half years and a Rolex Submariner watch. Metropolitan Police / Getty Images

A luxury watch thief who chatted to victims before robbing them in London’s Rolex Ripper crime wave has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Mohamed Amoyos, 33, was jailed for four and a half years at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of robbery at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how Amoyos targeted lone men wearing designer watches at night, striking up conversations about South American football, before grabbing the timepieces from their wrists once their guards were down.

He stole four watches worth a total of £65,000 using the method – which contrasts with the more common technique of using mopeds to ride up to wearers and snatch the timepieces – between October and December 2023.

They included a £7,000 Rolex stolen from a man in Kensington on October 4.

On November 18, Amoyos took a £40,000 Audemars Piguet watch from a man in Westminster.

Six days later, Amoyos robbed a man in Kensington for his Rolex Submariner, worth £15,000, before stealing a £2,500 limited-edition Muhammad Ali Tag Heuer watch from a fourth victim in Westminster, on December 1.

He was arrested on January 8 this year.

Detective Superintendent Andy Swindells, who led the investigation for London’s Metropolitan Police, said Amoyos’s arrest followed a thorough investigation by officers “that demonstrates their unwavering determination to make the capital safer for Londoners and tourists”.

“We’ve seen time and time again the devastating effect that robbery can have on victims no matter what gets stolen,” he said.

“We encourage people to report as soon as they can whenever they have been a victim of a robbery or theft, so officers can attend the scene and investigate swiftly.”

Amoyos, from Hounslow, west London, is one of several people sentenced recently in a clampdown on the capital's watch theft crime wave.

Last month, Aidan Lukeman, 29, and Marcel Espinosa Farrell, 22, were sentenced to a combined nine years and eight months for a series of robberies involving high-value watches.

The number of watches stolen in England and Wales almost doubled to 11,035 a year between 2015 and 2022, according to figures from Watchfinder UK, in a surge that became known as the Rolex Ripper crime wave.

London is the centre, with a 56 per cent rise in thefts and 6,000 watches stolen in the capital last year alone.

International business executives have voiced concerns about visiting even the most high-end parts of London for fear their expensive watches will be stolen.

The Met Police have dedicated extra resources to fighting the crime wave and this year revealed details of an operation in which undercover officers wearing luxury watches late at night in central London were used as bait to lure robbers, before their colleagues moved in to make arrests.

Earlier this year, the jailing of Algerian watch thieves exposed a crime network operating from North Africa to the UK to carry out lucrative robberies.

Using background details provided by the Met Police about the Algerian-led gang, court documents and coverage of their trial, as well as speaking to experts, The National was able to piece together how they went about their work and how the booming market in stolen watches drew them to the streets of London.

Top 6 luxury watch brands listed as stolen/missing – in pictures

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  Watches by Swiss manufacturer Rolex on display at the Monte Carlo Country Club in Monaco in 2016. Reuters

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  Omega watches in the window of a Watches of Switzerland Group shop on Regent Street in London. Bloomberg

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  Breitling Superocean Heritage watches on display at the Baselworld watch and jewellery fair in Basel, Switzerland in 2018. Reuters

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  TAG Heuer watches on display at Baselworld in Basel, Switzerland. Getty Images

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  Cartier watches in a shop window in Dublin. Getty Images

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  Patek Philippe novelty watches at Watches of Switzerland in New York City. AFP

Met officers are targeting hotspots for phone and watch robberies, such as Westminster and Croydon, with increased patrols and plain clothes officers.

Suspects who are imprisoned for three months or more for robbery are made to wear electronic tags on their release.

If they are found to be within 100 metres of a reported robbery in London, the data from their tag is used to build evidence against those committing offences.