Success of the Rolex Rippers who terrorise London: Police’s own dismal figures show just one in 88 luxury watches snatched in capital are returned to their owners
Police have recovered only a small fraction of the luxury watches stolen in London in the last few years; ‘Rolex dismantlers’ kept thousands of watches they took.
Around 5,180 watches worth more than £3,000 were stolen in the capital between January 2022 and July 2025, but only 59 – one in 88 – were found.
The worst boroughs for burglaries over the three-and-a-half year period were Kensington and Chelsea with 493, followed by Westminster with 480, Camden with 272 and Lambeth with 251.
The next worst were Hackney with 224 points, Tower Hamlets with 186 points and Barnet with 179 points, according to Metropolitan Police data released under the Freedom of Information Act.
But the annual number of reported thefts is falling; 1,974 watches were stolen in 2022 and 2,048 in 2023; This was followed by 781 hours last year and 377 hours in the first half of 2025 through July.
Only 28 hours were recovered in each of 2022 and 2023, then just three last year and zero so far this year. The most stolen brand during the period was Rolex with 1,788, followed by Cartier with 285, Omega with 217, Breitling with 121 and Hublot with 97.
One of the most notable incidents in recent years was the theft of former world boxing champion Amir Khan’s £70,000 diamond-encrusted watch at gunpoint.
The Olympic silver medalist was targeted as he and his wife Faryal Makhdoom were leaving the Sahara Grill restaurant in Leyton, East London, one night in April 2022.
One of the most notable incidents in recent years was the theft of boxer Amir Khan’s £70,000 diamond-encrusted watch at gunpoint, taken with his wife Faryal Makhdoom.
Khan was forced to surrender his Franck Muller Vanguard Chronograph during the robbery
Dramatic CCTV captures moment of robbery in Leyton, East London, in April 2022
Gunman Dante Campbell (left) was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison for Khan’s watch theft, while getaway driver Ahmed Bana (right) was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison.
Gunman Dante Campbell was later sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison, while getaway driver Ahmed Bana was also sentenced to nine years and eight months.
Khan’s case was a rare example of him being captured by police at the end of the hour.
The 38-year-old later thanked the Met for its efforts to return the watch and said he would auction it off for charity.
Another incident saw an illegal Algerian immigrant watch dismantler target the boss of Tim Hortons and then snatch his accomplice’s £65,000 Patek Philippe watch from his wrist on New Bond Street in Mayfair.
CCTV obtained by the Daily Mail showed Axel Schwan bravely chasing a thief who brazenly stole a luxury item from the businessman in June 2024.
As Mr Schwan was walking down the road with his wife, a member of the watch dismantling trio, including 26-year-old Ahmed Djidi, silently approached behind him and snatched the five-figure watch from his wrist.
Although Djidi did not steal the watch himself, the thief was part of the gang who targeted the coffee patron to find a ‘valuable bracelet’ they could steal.
Djidi appeared at Southwark Crown Court with the help of an Arabic translator earlier this month and was sentenced to 22 months in prison for the incident.
In October last year, two ‘Rolex rippers’ targeted undercover police officers posing as a wealthy couple carrying fake designer watches in Mayfair.
CCTV footage shows how 21-year-old Algerian national Yakob Harket took a replica Patek Philippe rose gold underwater watch from the female police officer’s wrist.
The unnamed police officers wore expensive clothing and accessories as bait.
Another incident saw an illegal Algerian immigrant watch dismantler target a Tim Hortons boss and then snatch his accomplice’s £65,000 Patek Philippe watch from his wrist in New Bond Street.
Ahmed Djidi was part of trio who stole Tim Horton’s boss Axel Schwan’s £65,000 watch
Axel Schwan went after the thief who brazenly stole the watch in June 2024
They were seen tackling Harket while another male cop in a suit ran and slid while wrestling the robber.
Harket was filmed running away while an undercover team arrested two of his colleagues on the other side of the street.
Harket was arrested shortly afterwards and later confessed to the robbery. The other defendant, Mohamed Naas (35), was found guilty of robbery by the jury.
Harket was sentenced to two years in prison, while his friend Naas, an Algerian, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Scotland Yard’s newly appointed leader on phone theft admitted today the police’s work in tackling crime was not ‘good enough’.
But Commander Andy Featherstone said the Met’s new strategy focused on targeting organized crime was making a difference.
He told the BBC the phone theft problem was ‘outside the norm’ for the Met, adding: ‘But ultimately it’s not good enough. The public deserves better.’
The Met’s own data shows that just over 1 per cent of phone thefts in the capital result in a charge or conviction, compared to 11 per cent of robberies.
CCTV footage showed how Algerian national Yakob Harket grabbed a replica Patek Philippe rose gold underwater watch from the wrist of a female police officer in Mayfair in October 2024.
Officers wore expensive accessories as they acted as bait for criminals
Yakob Harket (left) was sentenced to two years in prison and Mohamed Naas (right) to three years.
Earlier this month, the Met said it had dismantled an international network suspected of smuggling tens of thousands of stolen phones out of the UK, in its biggest operation to tackle phone theft in London.
The crime syndicate is believed to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China in the last 12 months; This accounts for 40 percent of all phones stolen in the capital.
The force launched Operation Echosteep in December 2024 after a box containing nearly 1,000 iPhones destined for Hong Kong was found in a warehouse near Heathrow Airport.
Officers discovered that nearly all the phones had been stolen. They also intercepted other shipments and used forensic evidence found on the packages to identify the suspects.
Police detained a total of 46 people after a two-week operation; 11 of these took place as police battled criminal gangs who were robbing delivery vans for the new iPhone 17.
A Met Police spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Tackling all forms of violent crime, including watch robbery, remains one of the Met’s priorities and we have reduced the number of personal robberies across London by 13 per cent since April.
‘Uniformed and plainly dressed police officers proactively patrol robbery hotspots to identify crimes taking place, but more importantly, help prevent and deter criminals from committing these crimes in the first place.’
