Flying Squad police have caught a group of robbers after they attempted to steal a watch using violence in London.

The gang’s victim was a 29-year-old man wearing a watch worth £2,000 who had left a Mayfair bar in the early hours of the morning on 12 August.

Police had been monitoring the group’s activities earlier in the night and the suspects were thought to be the same four men involved in a series of high-value watch robberies in the West End.

The Flying Squad followed the suspects, who had been trailing the victim’s taxi in a separate car.

The man arrived home at 2.20am and when his taxi had left, the men jumped him.

They grabbed him by the neck, put him in a chokehold and violently dragged him to the ground.

However, they botched the watch robbery as they couldn’t figure out how to detach the clasp, so made a run for it after a few minutes.

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The Flying Squad officers, accompanied by the Westminster Robbery Squad, followed the robbers, cornered them and arrested them nearby.

They were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for attempted robbery on 20 April.

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Abukar Aligas, 23, and Abdikafi Omar, 21, of Brent, northwest London were sentenced to two years, suspended for two years. Mahamud Gudal, 22, of no fixed address received the same sentence.

Zakaria Mohammed, 22, also of Brent, was sentenced to two years and 12 weeks in custody

Detective Sergeant Gary Taylor headed the investigation and the operation to target the spate of thefts.

Sergeant Taylor 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.”

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