Moment luxury watch thief mistakenly target pair of undercover police officers posing as Mayfair couple
17 April 2025, 18:03
CCTV footage reveals the moment a watch thief targets a pair of undercover officers posing as a wealthy Mayfair couple in expensive clothes and accessories.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Watch thief mistakenly targets undercover Met Police officers
The Met Police used undercover tactics to catch thieves in Mayfair, London on October 10 last year.
Yakob Harket, who is believed to have an accomplice, is seen to follow the pair before trying to grab a replica Patek Philippe Rose Gold watch from the female police officer in Hayes Mews at around 6:15pm.
The male officer then grabs Harket as he tries to run as a second officer, wearing a suit helps to apprehend the suspect.
The second officer is seen to slip over, and Harket gets away.
He was caught and arrested shortly after. Footage shows two other men arrested by plain-clothed officers in relation to the incident.
Read More: Madeleine McCann cops given extra £108k as search continues for missing Brit 18 years on
Harket, 21, pleaded guilty to robbery in court.
Mohamed Naas, his accomplice, from Southwark, was found guilty of Robbert on April 11 at Southwark Crown Court.
They will both be sentenced at the same court on June 2.
Police are trying to locate Adel Mohamdi, 35, last known to be living in Lewisham and Yanis Amri, 37, last known to be living in Camden, who failed to attend court after being charged in relation to the same incident.
A Met Police spokesperson said: "Tackling violent crime is one of the Met's priorities and we are determined to reduce the number of robberies.
"Uniform and plain clothes officers proactively patrol robbery hotspots to identify offences taking place, but more importantly to help prevent and deter offenders from committing robberies in the first place."
The Met Police revealed their new undercover tactic in January 2024.
Previous footage shows thieves have been tasered and wrestled to the ground in Soho after trying the rip expensive watches from plain-clothes police officers.
This comes as £4 million worth of watches were stolen across three London borough's between April and September 2022.
Mayfair, Soho, Chelsea and South Kensington have been named as "hotspots" high-value theft.
98% of victims are men, leaving nightclubs and bars on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Most of the robberies occur between 11pm and 4am.
