Hatton Garden watch dealer jailed for selling over 100 stolen watches
CLARIFICATION: When this article was first published, the featured image showed the premises of 88-90 Hatton Garden, which may have given the impression that businesses occupying this building were involved in the story. We would like to clarify that no business visible in the original image was involved in the story below.
Watch dealer, Nadeem Malick, has been jailed for 18 months after he was caught selling stolen high-value watches.
The timepieces he was selling matched those on the Art Loss Register (ALR) database of stolen watches.
On 6 January 2016, a watch shop in Mayfair was robbed by four men who took 81 watches valued at £1.1m. While being pursued by officers, one of the men was seen dumping a bag.
When police recovered the bag, it was found to contain 41 watches valued at £650,000. Following the robbery, the owner of the store registered the stolen goods on the ALR.
On 21 March 2016, Malick was found to be selling a gold Rolex which was listed on the ALR as being stolen in the Mayfair robbery. Malick was arrested that same day and was found in possession of the £13,500 GMT Rolex watch, as well as a bag of 27 other timepieces.
A search of his house uncovered another 60 watches, bringing the total to 78 in total. It was determined that 50 of those watches were stolen.
Some 32 of the artefacts were stolen from a jewellers in Milton Keynes on 21 November 2015. Another 14 were taken from an Oxford-based jeweller on 31 December 2015. Two others were from residential burglaries and one had been bought with a fraudulent credit card.
The total value of stolen watches in Malick’s possession amounted to £113,450.
Malick was found to have sold £1,210,450 worth of stolen watches between 14 September and June 2016.
DC Kevin Parley of the Met’s Flying Squad said: said: “Despite purporting to be a small time player on the watch dealing field, I compiled overwhelming evidence of handling stolen goods against Malick.
“Each of the 106 watches stolen represents a victim of crime and I am pleased that the sentence handed down today reflects that.”
