Around 30 Rolex watches were stolen from GH Pressley & Son, in South Street, at around 12.15pm on March 3.

Three men in white boiler suits allegedly used a sledgehammer to smash their way through a security door into the shop.

Four staff members and three customers, including a child, watched in stunned silence and hid behind the counter as the men smashed their way in.

The robbers then allegedly used a crowbar to open an internal door, which allowed them to grab the watches, worth £250,000, from a window display.

The men then ran out of the shop and were seen to run off down a nearby alleyway and get into a silver Ford Focus waiting in Bedford Row.

Amazed onlookers gave chase down the alleyway and managed to record the Ford Focus's number plate. Police said the men abandoned the car shortly afterwards in Warwick Road and fled the area in a white Ford Escort van, which was also later found abandoned.

On December 1, James Stewart, 27, Caroline Bado, 31, Anthony Bado, Lee Fairbank, 30, Charles Saddler, Albert Bado, 39, and Mark Hardy, 24. all from London, appeared at Kingston Crown Court charged with conspiracy to rob.

Six other defendants on the same charges appeared in connection with similar robberies of high value watches from jewellery shops in Eastbourne, Brighton and Chichester.

The dozen defendants are among a total of 50 people who will face trial at Kingston Crown Court in 2010 after an investigation led by the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad into 37 linked robberies across London and the south between January, 2008, and May of this year.


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