Two suspects entering Graff jewellers on 6 August. Photograph: Metropolitan police/Getty Images
A £1m reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of thieves who pulled off the £40m Graff Diamonds heist, the Metropolitan police said yesterday.
For sheer audacity and criminal cunning, the execution of the robbery was as flawless as the gems the two suited armed robbers scooped from a cabinet in Britain's biggest jewellery raid.
Their identities, hidden behind latex masks, the hostage-taking, the "warning" shots, the chain of getaway vehicles, the stunning swiftness – all seemingly went to plan, a plan undoubtedly hatched months before.
No doubt too that the 43 dazzling necklaces, earrings and bracelets are already out of the country. As diamond dealers across the globe are placed on alert, experts believe they could be headed to east Asia, particularly China.
"It's probably one of the few places someone could wear the pieces without them being recognised," said Harry Levy, a London diamond dealer and vice-president of the London Diamond Bourse, the exclusive trading floor in Hatton Garden.
More likely, though, the pieces will be broken up. Attempts will be made to "launder" individual stones, of which there are 1,437. And Hong Kong's gems fairs – with "plenty of money" and "not too many questions asked" – could provide the ideal conduit.
Demand for diamonds in China is growing, with it set to overtake the US and Japan as the world's biggest market. Even so, disposing of £40m of such recognisable stones will not be easy.
"It's one of the things that most fascinates the public, which romanticises diamond heists, even though the truth is far from glamorous," said Kris Hollington, who, as author of Diamond Geezers, about the failed heist of the priceless Millennium Star, acquired unique access to the diamond underworld.
"It's bound up in Ocean's 11 glamour. The perception is, if you're going to steal a really precious set of diamonds, you're an original kind of thief. Then people think: 'Gosh. What on earth are they going to do with them?'"
As soon as the robbers walked out of the New Bond Street store nine days ago the value of their haul plummeted, probably to a tenth of the original £40m.
The reward, of up to £1m, for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of those responsible and the recovery of the stolen property is on behalf of insurers. Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace, head of Barnes Flying Squad, said: "I think this is the biggest reward that has ever been offered for a crime of this type."
The mark-up on Graff pieces can be four times the value of the stones – the highest in the business. Laurence Graff, 71, the rags-to-riches owner of the most exclusive global jewellery chain, is the "king of diamonds", buying exclusive stones competitors cannot afford.
Raised in a one-roomed home in Whitechapel, east London, Graff's early patronage by the Sultan of Brunei has helped him to earn an estimated £1.2bn fortune, five luxury homes, a private jet and yacht, a South African vineyard, his own diamond mine and an enviable art collection. His wife has been described as "so bedecked with diamonds as to look like a glacier".
"If you want the very best, and money is no object, you go to Graff's," said Levy. Graff's clients include Naomi Campbell, Mike Tyson, Ivana Trump and David Beckham. His mantra? "Clients are rare, but so are the diamonds."
His Mayfair and Knightsbridge stores have been hit four times in six years. In 2003 members of the notorious Pink Panther gang, an unsavoury assortment of hardcore Balkan criminals, walked through the airlocked doors at the same New Bond Street store and walked out with jewellery worth £23m. Only 20 of the hundreds of stones stolen have been recovered, including a £500,000 ring found at a gang member's home, hidden in a tub of face cream, a tactic used in the original 1963 Pink Panther film and which earned the gang its soubriquet.
Graff laser-marks his most expensive stones. All legitimate diamonds of any value have a "unique" passport, a certificate grading the four Cs – colour, clarity, cut and carat. Without certification, they are valueless on the legitimate market. Each usually comes with a diagram, marking the position of the tiny specks of carbon that can be seen when viewed through a "loupe", the jeweller's 10X magnification tool.
With these details circulated to diamond-grading labs and exchanges across the globe, "it will be very difficult to dispose of them, certainly in the western world," said Levy. "Easier in the far east, or eastern Europe. In the far east they may persuade somebody in a laboratory to grade stones without asking too many questions. They may get a fictitious laboratory to make up a certificate.
"A lot of people go to the fairs in Hong Kong with money they want to convert into jewellery. But they would need to have the stones certified to be able to resell them, or for insurance purposes."
Stones can be disguised. Repolishing them reduces the weight, the shape and the value. It can move the position of the carbon specks so they slip past even the most observant grader. If they had not done so beforehand, the Graff robbers would probably "try and dump them for a fairly low price to somebody with connections," said Levy.
Former flying squad commander Roy Ramm said the initial silence from detectives – news of the heist was not made public for five days – indicated they had a line of inquiry.
"It's certainly been well organised," he said. "In terms of audacity it rates as one of the highest I've seen."
The CCTV footage, however, may be worthless with claims the men were wearing masks. But then, jewellers are used to odd-looking clients in disguise.
In the 2003 raid staff noticed the "atrocious" wig worn by Nebojsa Denic. At his trial one salesman explained: "I thought he was a rock star. Or had a disease."
Robber barons
The Graff robbers' London accents could indicate a return of the East End "blagger", for years outdazzled in the robbery stakes by their evocatively named European cousins.
The School of Turin Responsible for the 2003 Antwerp Diamond Centre heist, this gang of mainly Italian professional thieves escaped with £100m worth of stones in what is recognised as the world's biggest heist, emptying 123 of the 160 vaults over one weekend.
The Pink Panther gang A loose alliance of mainly ex-military Serbian and Montenegrin criminals suspected of stealing more than £100m in jewellery thefts across Europe, including the 2003 £23m raid on Graff Diamonds in London.
The Sultans of Bling Based in Provence, this north African "family firm" is believed responsible for the theft of tens of millions worth of gems from stores across Europe. Headed by the "Sultan", Jean Herrina, so named because he posed as a Saudi prince, it includes a female accomplice called "the High Magician". Herrina killed himself in prison in 2007. But the gang goes on.
The Millennium Dome gang From London and Kent, they planned to steal diamonds worth £350m, including the Millennium Star, from a De Beers exhibition in the dome in 2000, ram-raiding through security barriers to find the diamonds replaced with fakes, and the flying squad waitingthe diamonds replaced with fakes. "More Lavender Hill Mob, trying something way out of their league," said author Kris Hollington.
Posted by Shona Lockhart, 24th Auugust 2009
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