Group sentenced after violent attack on man to steal his £2k watch

A group of watch robbers have been sentenced after they were caught following a violent attack on a man.

On August 12, at around 2am, a 29-year-old man left a bar in Berkley Square, Mayfair, after an evening with his friend and got in a taxi to head home.

Four men followed him close behind in a separate car after they noticed he was wearing a watch worth £2,000.

The victim got out of the taxi at around 2.30am, when he arrived home.

Dramatic footage shows officers arresting the watch robbers (Video: The Met)

When the taxi left, the victim was grabbed around his neck and put in a chokehold. He was then violently dragged and pulled to the ground.

One of the men then grabbed the victim’s wrist in an attempt to take and steal his watch, but could not work out how to detach the clasp. The group fled the scene after a few minutes.

The Met said it had been monitoring the group’s movements from around 1am, earlier on in the evening, as they were acting suspiciously in the area.

This behaviour matched that of those who had been involved in recent high value watch robberies.

When the attackers left the scene after attempting to rob the victim, the officers followed them.

The suspects were all detained and arrested for attempted robbery shortly after the attack took place.

They were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday for attempted robbery.

Abukar Aligas, 23 of Holland Road, Brent, Mahamud Gudal, 22 of no fixed address and Abdikafi Omar, 21 of Buchanan Gardens, Brent were all sentenced to two years, suspended for two years.

Zakaria Mohammed, 22 of Leghorn Road, Brent was sentenced to 2 years and 12 weeks in custody

Detective Sergeant Gary Taylor who led the investigation and the proactive operation to target the spate of thefts, said: “I am proud that the proactive work my team does, as demonstrated in this case, resulted in the arrests and the sentencing of these four individuals.

“We are doing everything in our power to ensure London’s streets are safer and that criminals like these are brought to justice. We remain committed to tackling robbery in all its forms.”

Pictured top: Abukar Aligas,Mahamud Gudal, Zakaria Mohammed, Abdikafi Omar (Picture: Met Police)