Five members of a London-based gang have been locked up after a man was lured to a Nottingham street and robbed.
The victim had agreed to buy two laptop computers from Ionel Radu and was told to meet Radu’s 16-year-old son at an address in The Meadows.
When the victim arrived at the meeting point, in Hope Close, around 4.45pm on 27 February 2025 he saw a young man, now known to be George Chirita, waiting for him.
Chirita showed the victim where to park his van before both men walked behind a row of homes close to a disused shop.
At this point the victim spotted three other men were following them and one was armed with a knife.
The men ran at the victim, with one of them swinging the knife and slashing the man’s coat. They forced the victim to the floor where he was punched and kicked.
At some point during the attack, the victim was stabbed in his arm and one of the robbers reached into his pockets to steal more than £6,000 in cash.
A high-value watch was also taken from him and the victim suffered a facial fracture and cuts underneath his eye.
After a man intervened, the gang ran away and the police were called. The victim received first aid and was then taken to hospital.
Detectives began an investigation which made use of dashcam and CCTV footage, as well as ANPR cameras to trace the offenders’ getaway vehicle, a grey Skoda Octavia, and identify them.
Inquiries revealed the group, made up of Chirita, Costel Ilie, Mihai Melu and Ionut Stoica, had travelled to Nottingham the day before the offence to scope out the area and find the location for ‘the trap’.
On the day of the robbery they travelled from London to Nottingham and headed back to London immediately after committing the offence.
Their movements around Nottingham, including a visit to a KFC restaurant before the attack, were pieced together by detectives.
The investigation also revealed Radu had remained in London to coordinate the robbery.
Officers raided the homes of Chirita, Ilie, Radu and Stoica in the London area and arrested them.
Melu was not at home but officers recognised a hoodie in his address was exactly the same as one worn by one of the offenders. He later handed himself in.
Chirita, aged 20, of Lymington Road, Dagenham, London, Ilie, 37, of South Street, Romford, London, 24-year-old Melu, of Rectory Road, Manor Park, London, Radu, 49, of Armstrong Close, Dagenham, London, and Stoica, aged 31, of Central Park Road, East Ham, London, denied conspiracy to commit robbery but were found guilty following a trial.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday (18 December) they were locked up for a combined 40 years.
Radu was jailed for 10 years, Stoica and Ilie received eight years each and Melu was put behind bars for seven years.
Chirita absconded during the trial and is believed to be in Romania. He was sentenced in his absence to seven years in a young offender institution.
Detective Constable Laura Morton, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“This group travelled from London to commit a very serious offence in Nottingham.
“The victim was tricked into meeting up to complete an exchange and was robbed, suffering a nasty stab wound during the attack.
“They probably expected to get away with it due to the distance travelled and the other complexities involved, but detectives used all the investigative tools at our disposal to trace those responsible.
“The victim told us the robbery has left him scarred psychologically for life. He repeatedly relives in his mind what happened that day and the attack has left him afraid to leave home.
“The case shows once again that we will go to great lengths to track down criminals travelling from other areas of the country to commit offences in our communities.
“I would urge anyone buying or selling items and meeting people to make exchanges to take every possible precaution to avoid becoming a victim of crime.”
