Three men from Brent have been sentenced after they 'violently' attacked a man they followed home in an attempt to steal his £2,000 watch.

On August 12, 2022, at around 2am, a 29-year-old man left a bar in Berkley Square.

 

He had spent the evening with his friend and was getting in a taxi to head home.

Unbeknownst to him, the three men - as well as a man of no fixed address - were following him close behind in a separate car after they noticed he was wearing a watch worth £2,000.

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The Met's Flying Squad had been monitoring the group's movements from around 1am earlier that evening.

According to the Met, the men had been behaving suspiciously.

The force said their behaviour matched that of those who had been involved in recent high value watch robberies that the Westminster Robbery Squad and the Flying Squad had investigated.

Once both vehicles drove off from the bar, the team of Flying Squad officers followed and continued to watch the group of men.

The victim got out of the taxi at 2.20am when he arrived home.

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

One of the men grabbed the victim's wrist in an attempt to take and steal his watch but could not work out how to detach the clasp.

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They made off after a few minutes and the Flying Squad officers followed.

The suspects were all detained and arrested for attempted robbery shortly after.

They were sentenced at Southwark Crown court on Thursday (April 20) 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 two 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."