How Rolex Ripper gangs use glam spotters to hunt victims for £40k watches as one ‘feared being beheaded’ by machete yob
AS a machete-wielding maniac ran towards Andrew Dinsmore, his terrified wife feared it was a terrorist attack and he would be “beheaded like Lee Rigby”.
In fact the thug, who struck in broad daylight on a London street in May last year, was after the lawyer’s luxury watch – one of the many ‘Rolex Rippers’ targeting rich wearers in the capital.
New stats show an explosion in the number of violent gangs on mopeds and electric bikes using guns and knives to steal watches worth as much as £150,000 each, with thefts of luxury brands up 65 per cent from 2021 to 2022.
Metropolitan Police figures show that 1,700 watches worth a combined total of £16m were stolen in London in the first five months of last year, with an estimated 50,000 watches nicked in the UK since 2019.
Celebrities including Aled Jones, Spencer Matthews and Michael McIntyre are among the victims left traumatised by the terrifying attacks.
Boxer Amir Khan, held at gunpoint for his £72,000 diamond encrusted Franck Muller, in April 2022 says he “genuinely feared for his life” during the ordeal.
In a new BBC documentary, Hunting the Rolex Rippers, journalist Tir Dhondy gets exclusive access to the gun-toting gang members behind the crime wave, who train kids as young as 12 to snatch watches from innocent victims.
She also talks to a young female ‘spotter’, paid up to £1,000 a night to target affluent men in high end bars, and a watch ‘reseller’ who says watches are “stolen to order” and a ‘handler’ can make £18,000 in half an hour for “doing nothing”.
In one chilling chat, a masked gang member tells Tir they feel justified in taking what they can’t afford.
“People got what I ain’t got. If I ain’t got it, man’s gonna take it,” he says. “Survival of the fittest, like bro you are either going to be a lion or you are going to be a b****.”
‘Deeply distressing’
Andrew, now a Conservative councillor, was walking to the cinema in Chelsea with his wife when he was ambushed – and believes he had been followed from a restaurant where they had just eaten.
“We were walking along a main street and as we turned into a residential road, a man got off the back of a moped, charged towards us, screaming ‘Give me your watch! Give me your f*****g watch’. Then I saw the machete.
“My wife thought it was a terrorist attack. She thought I was going to be beheaded like Lee Rigby.”
CCTV footage shows his wife collapsing in shock after the incident.
“It was deeply distressing for her,” says Andrew. “I was wearing a long-sleeved jumper. There was no way you could see (the watch) from the road but they approached me, went straight for me.
“The only time it would have been visible was when we were in the restaurant and I pulled the sleeve of my jumper up.”
He is among the many victims attacked after being scouted by ‘spotters’, who wait outside high end restaurants and bars and select victims by the price of their designer timepieces.
‘Way of life’
Gang members Raz and K have been ‘ripping’ for four years and say it’s a “way of life” to them.
“There’s many ways of going about it. It’s never walking up and grabbing it,” says Raz.
“I’d rather go past on a bike. If I see you then I’m grabbing it off your wrist.”
K takes Tir to Knightsbridge where he instantly identifies potential victims who have no idea their watches are putting a target on their backs.
“People don’t understand how easy it is, until it’s done to them,” he says, adding he’s happy to rob a “grandma with a £40k watch just chilling on her wrist… if that’s what you see on that day and it’s looking like it’s good money.
“This game has no rules,” he adds chillingly.
The documentary also reveals the use of young female ‘spotters’ who frequent clubs and bars in London’s most exclusive areas to identify punters with designer watches.
One anonymous woman says she is dropped off by the gangs and paid between £500 and £1,000 a night, depending on the haul from her tip-offs.
“I’ll talk to guys. I’ll never be drinking, I’ll never be relaxed there. I’ll be going to the toilet and dropping the drink there,” she says.
“If they’ve got something on their wrist that looks good, then I’ll be in communication with one of my guys.”
Being female helps her get into the venues and get closer to the victims.
“If I’m there talking to a guy, he’s going to be more relaxed,” she explains. “We’re having a drink together, flirting. So for him, he’s having a good time. For me, it’s not that. It’s just business.”
She says she doesn’t feel bad because “I’ve got bills to pay. These guys, they’ve got more money than they actually know what to do with.”
Recruited aged 12
The spotter’s boss M, who runs an organised gang of ‘rippers’, reveals he first started stealing watches at 12 or 13 and now recruits youngsters to do the same.
He says he was drawn into crime after “seeing things I couldn’t acquire, watching music videos – (thinking) ‘Wow that costs 50 grand’”.
“Someone’s got a deposit on a house, a mortgage, on their wrist. That’s crazy.”
Two of his teenage recruits, who use mopeds to sweep past victims and rip watches off their wrists, proudly show off a £18,000 Rolex, with a strap broken in the robbery.
They boast they can still get £10,000 after splitting it 50-50 with the seller, who is only a phone call away, adding it’s “not bad for an hour’s work”.
Driving round in Mayfair, M instantly spots a Rolex Submariner worth £20k.
“You see an opportunity and you can just tell if it’s worth it or not, by judging a book by its cover,” he says, adding that anything “less than ten grand isn’t worth the risk”.
Asked if he is worried about the trauma caused by threatening a victim with a weapon he says: “It’s something I’m doing – why am I going to start feeling bad and start having morals and whatnot?
The dangerous nature of the ‘game’ is illustrated when M produces a gun after spotted two rival gang members – and the film crew is forced to flee.
But M also has no qualms about “coaching” teenagers in how to steal the luxury goods, saying: “To come to me you’ve gone past the point, you’ve been doing stuff already. I see it as a job.
“You do what you’d do with any new employee, you show them the ropes. That helps them in their job, if that’s what they want to do.”
Asked if the kids had been robbed of a more positive future, he adds: “I’m not going to dive into their prospects. I don’t care. All I care about is getting these watches and selling the watches, that’s it.”
Regrets
One teen who now regrets getting caught up in violent crime is the attacker of singer Aled Jones’, who was threatened with a 23in machete and had his £17,000 Daytona Rolex stolen in Chiswick in July.
Just 16 at the time, the youth – handed a 24-month sentence in October – says he regrets the robbery.
“I felt like I was in a situation where I was desperate, I had to get money,” he says, adding that he spotted the 52-year-old star looking at “expensive wines and cheeses” in a posh shop and noticed the Rolex, before following him into a quiet road and pulling the knife on him.
After the robbery he says he felt “happy if anything” – but half an hour later the realisation hit he’d “done something crazy”.
“I regretted it instantly,” he said, adding: “I don’t feel as bad because he’s a well off celebrity – he’s probably got ten more in his safe.”
He admits the violence of the attack could have traumatised Aled, who was with son Lucas, 18, at the time, adding: “If they weren’t scared they wouldn’t give it to me. That’s why you pull out a weapon on them, to scare them.”
He warned there is “risk to every reward” and that the consequences are “serious time in prison”.
Hunting the Rolex Rippers is available to stream on the BBC iPlayer now.