Watch robbery gang is jailed for £137k Mayfair mugging as police reveal £1m stolen from West End wrists every month

A watch robbery gang has been jailed after slashing a £137,000 Richard Mille from Romanian fashion entrepreneur Catalin Botezatu's wrist outside Mayfair restaurant Amazonico in January, amid revelations that knife-wielding gangs are ripping luxury watches worth £1 million from tourists and Londoners in the West End every single month. The scale of the crisis emerged at Southwark Crown Court, where a Met detective sergeant told the court that high-value watch robbery 'remains a problem' despite police efforts, with a knife seen or implied in one in five offences.

Younes Djoudi, 34, was jailed for five years and nine months; Ali Eldahouzze, 22, got three years and six months; Abdel El Habchi, 30, received five years and six months.

Judge Dafna Spiro called the robberies 'a shame and a blight on our city', noting Botezatu has been 'deterred from returning' to London as a result.

The stolen watch — a diamond-encrusted birthday gift from a now-deceased friend — remains missing.