Tunnelling gang caught carrying out jewellery shop raid

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Ioan Asafeti, 39, Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara, 38, and Sergiu Plastin, 42, attempted the raid on Mitcham Road in Tooting, south London, on the morning of July 17th.

Body-worn footage caught Nitisoara being arrested in an alley near the scene of the crime, while Asafeti was located hiding on a rooftop, Kingston Crown Court heard.

Plastin was caught using mobile phone data and detained later that day after being arrested at Stansted Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Ireland.

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Officers found the hole being dug through a connecting wall between the massage parlour and the jewellery store, alongside a bag of tools.

Police searching the neighbouring massage parlour found a hole being dug through an adjoining wall into the jewellery store, along with bags of tools.

The thieves were linked to a string of commercial burglaries that struck jewellers across London between May and July, with stolen goods amounting to more than £700,000, an investigation by the Met's Flying Squad found.

Police revealed that the men used tunnelling techniques to access the store overnight, successfully bypassing security systems. Inquiries by Interpol suggested potential links to similar offences in Europe.

After being caught in the act, Det Supt Dan Mitchell said the men had "dug their own hole".

"Their arrests didn't just stop this burglary. They formed part of a wider Flying Squad investigation that uncovered an organised crime group linked to a string of jewellery shop break-ins," he added.

The three men will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on October 23rd.