Thief caught after trying to steal luxury watch from plain clothes officers

A thief has been convicted after he attempted to steal a high-value watch from two undercover plain clothes police officers.

Yakob Harket, 21, was caught in a Metropolitan Police crackdown operation when he targeted the officers at Hays Mews in Mayfair, west London, on the evening of October 10 last year.

CCTV footage showed the suspect approaching from behind as the officers, who were posing as a couple with their arms linked, walked past a parked car, before he reached out to snatch the exposed watch from the female officer’s wrist.

Both officers then engaged Harket as he attempted to make off with the item, before two more officers joined in efforts to detain him in the street.

Harket and another man, Mohamed Naas, 34, were arrested shortly afterwards.

Harket, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery, while Naas, of Jamaica Road, Southwark, was found guilty of the same offence.

Both men will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on June 2.

The force carried out similar operations across South Kensington, Chelsea, Soho and Mayfair – the areas of London where watch thefts robberies most frequently occurred – in late 2022 and 2023.

A Met spokesperson said: “Tackling violent crime in all its forms is one of the Met’s priorities and we are determined to reduce the number of robberies.

“Uniform and plain clothes officers proactively patrol robbery hotspots to identify offences taking place, but more importantly to help prevent and deter offenders from committing robberies in the first place.”