Gangs are snatching £1million of luxury watches off wrists in the West End each month, police reveal

Three men who tore a £137,000 diamond-encrusted Richard Mille watch from the wrist of Romanian entrepreneur Catalin Botezatu outside Amazonico in Berkeley Square have been sentenced to prison. Mr Botezatu, who has five stents following cancer surgery, told Southwark Crown Court he 'feared for my life'. The watch had been given to him by a friend now deceased and has never been found.

Younes Djoudi got five years nine months, Abdel El Habchi five and a half years, Ali Eldahouzze three and a half.

The Met logged 97 watch robberies from January to June, then 70 more by September.

Judge Dafna Spiro branded the robberies 'a shame and a blight on our city'.