Gang members who conspired to steal millions of pounds’ worth of jewellery before tying up and terrorising victims in their own homes have been convicted.
On one occasion, offenders wearing boiler suits and motorcycle helmets smashed their way into an art gallery and made off with a diamond encrusted tiara worth around £3.5million.
The audacious raid at Nottinghamshire’s Welbeck Estate was later linked to a series of violent robberies – including at the homes of two international footballers.
Nottinghamshire Police began a major investigation after the carefully planned raid at the Harley Gallery on 20 November 2018.
Items taken included the Portland Tiara – made for the Duchess of Portland to wear at the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902 – and a matching brooch.
Detectives were later able to link the raid to a series of subsequent robberies and burglary in early 2019 when they raided a shop (Paris Jewels) in London’s Hatton Garden where they believed the tiara had been taken.
Inside they found a plastic bag containing a stash of jewellery and an FA Cup runners-up medal stolen the day before from the home of a professional footballer.
The officers established that the goods had only been delivered to the shop around 15 minutes before they arrived.
Officers then worked backwards, using mobile phone and traffic camera analysis to link gang members to the same shop the day after a series to violent robberies across Nottinghamshire and Surrey.
Video reconnaissance
Gang member Ashley Cumberpatch was established as a prime suspect for the gallery raid when officers discovered a reconnaissance video filmed during an apparently innocent day out at the gallery.
The footage, filmed more than a year before the break-in, had been seized during an unrelated search warrant. It helped the gang identify not only the exact location of the jewels, but also their entry and exit route through a window at the side of the building.
The Portland Tiara raid
The well-planned raid took place on the night of 20 November 2018, with three gang members driving a stolen Audi RS across fields before using specialist industrial saws to cut their way in through a reinforced glass window.
Such was the precision of the raid that the boiler-suit clad thieves were in and out with the stolen goods within eight minutes.
The car, stolen from near Nuthall less than three weeks earlier, was later found abandoned near Rainworth.
The gang
Charges were later bought against multiple suspects.
Cumberpatch, aged 37, formerly of First Avenue, Carlton, was charged with conspiracy to commit burglary at the Harley Gallery.
Four other men were charged with the same offence: Matthew Johnson, aged 36, of Kingsthorpe Close, Mapperley; Andrew MacDonald, aged 42, of Berridge Road West, The Arboretum; Adrian Eddishaw, aged 34, of Northall Avenue, Bulwell and Kurtis Dilks, aged 35, of Whitegate Vale, Clifton.
Cumberpatch, MacDonald and Eddishaw were also charged with converting criminal property in relation to the Harley Gallery burglary, as were Gordon Thornhill, aged 49, of Mosswood Crescent, Arnold, Christopher Yorke, aged 50, of Rose Ash Lane, Arnold, and their contacts at Paris Jewels, Sercan Evsin, aged 27, of Meadow Close, Barnett, and Tevfik Guccuk, aged 41, of Houndsden Road, Southgate, London.
Johnson and Darren Stokes aged 33, of Staunton Drive, Sherwood, were also charged with converting criminal property in relation to the stolen Audi used in the Harley Gallery burglary.
Phone analysis led detectives to believe MacDonald, who used to live in London, was the link between the gang and the jewellers.
Related robberies and burglary
After the Harley Gallery break-in, the next incident in the series was a house burglary in Willoughby-in-the-Wolds, on 11 March 2019, when £500,000 of watches, jewellery and designer handbags were stolen after the offenders climbed in through a first-floor window using a ladder.
Nottinghamshire Police’s investigation into this offence led to a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary for Cumberpatch, MacDonald and Dilks.
The same trio, plus jewellers Evsin and Guccuk, were also charged with converting criminal property.
Next came a robbery in Carlton on 22 March 2019 where the victims were restrained by cable-ties, assaulted and one had his earlobe cut with pliers to coerce him into giving them his valuables. The victim was then taken to the home of his mother – who had dementia – in The Park, Nottingham so the gang could steal further property. Ladders had been taken to the initial incident but were not used because the victim came home and was instantly confronted by the masked people carrying weapons.
Cumberpatch, MacDonald and Dilks were charged with conspiracy to rob and converting criminal property in relation to this incident. Evsin and Guccuk were also charged with converting criminal property.
A robbery then followed at the home of a professional footballer on 1 May 2019, who was known to be playing a fixture away from home. His wife was confronted in her bed upstairs and restrained with cable ties before the masked intruders stole high-value jewellery and designer handbags, worth around £500,000.
This also led to charges for Cumberpatch, MacDonald and Dilks for conspiracy to rob and converting criminal property. Again, Evsin and Guccuk were also charged with converting criminal property.
The next robbery in the series involved two victims where one was restrained using cable -ties with one having a knife held to his throat. The intruders escaped with watches and jewellery worth thousands of pounds during the incident in Chilwell on 26 July 2019.
Cumberpatch, MacDonald and Dilks were again charged with conspiracy to rob and converting criminal property. Guccuk was also charged with converting criminal property.
The final raid in the series was at the home of another footballer in Surrey on the evening of 20 January 2020, when he was at home with his partner and their two children.
The family had become aware of masked intruders outside their home carrying ladders and called the police, before the gang entered the house. They bound the victim and his partner with cable ties and threatening them with violence whilst demanding jewellery. They left the family extremely shaken and escaped with five designer watches and some mobile phones.
Forensic evidence linked Dilks to a knife and cable ties that were used in the incident. He was charged with two offences of robbery and one offence of aggravated burglary in relation to this incident.
Following a 13-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court, six of the gang members were found guilty today (8 July).
Ashley Cumberpatch was convicted of three counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, five counts of converting criminal property and three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Andrew Macdonald was convicted of three counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, five counts of converting criminal property and three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Kurtis Dilks was convicted of three counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, four counts of converting criminal property, two counts of robbery and three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Tevfik Guccuk was convicted of five counts of converting criminal property.
Sercan Evsin was convicted of four counts of converting criminal property.
Christopher Yorke was convicted of converting criminal property.
Adrian Eddishaw was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary and converting criminal property.
Darren Stokes was found not guilty of converting criminal property.
Matthew Johnson was found not guilty of converting criminal property and not guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary.
Gordon Thornhill was found not guilty of converting criminal property.
Those convicted have been remanded into custody and will be sentenced on Friday 15 July, at Nottingham Crown Court.
Shazad Khan and Abiazh Raja were not involved in the trial as they pleaded guilty to a number of offences at a previous hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on 13 August 2021.
Raja, aged 23, formerly of Lea Hall Road, Stretchford, Birmingham, admitted theft of a motor vehicle and converting criminal property in relation to the Audi that was used in the Harley Gallery burglary, as well as a separate offence of theft of a motor vehicle in relation to another Audi stolen on 20 November 2018. He was jailed for a total of six months.
Khan, aged 48, of Lea Hall Road, Stretchford, Birmingham, also admitted offences of theft of a motor vehicle in relation to the same two cars. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for 24 months.
Detective Inspector Gayle Hart, of Nottinghamshire Police, was the senior investigating officer in the case.
She said: “The scale and significance of this investigation was immense. The Portland Tiara is a historic national treasure that is unlikely to ever be seen again as we believe it will have been dismantled and taken abroad for sale. The diamonds in it are incredibly rare and valuable as they were mined in the 1800s – but aside from the value they are a loss to the nation due to their historic significance.
“The audacious way they committed this high-profile burglary and the careful planning that went into it over a long time makes this a really unusual crime, particularly in Nottinghamshire.
“The gang responsible used the same careful planning for a serious of other incidents, as well as a willingness to use violence and fear on unsuspecting families who were left really shaken and living with the effects – constantly looking over their shoulder – to this day.
“I hope today’s convictions give them some relief that individuals involved have been brought to justice and now await sentencing.”
DI Hart also paid tribute to the team of detectives and support staff who had worked on the case, which began as a burglary investigation but soon spiralled into a much wider and more complex series of offences.
She said: “The team was relentless and absolutely determined to see this case through. This was a small CID team from Nottinghamshire Police, who carried out this enquiry alongside all their other investigations and I can’t praise them highly enough. The work that went into this was absolutely first class and shows what great detectives we have in the force.”
