𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚎 (𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎)

GRAFF DIAMOND ROBBERY

Four robbers face jail after being convicted of taking part in the £40m Graff diamonds heist.

Soloman Beyene, 25, of Marylebone, and Clinton Mogg, 43, of Bournemouth, were convicted of conspiracy to rob at Woolwich crown court today and the jury discharged after 15 days' deliberation.

The jury, of eight women and three men, had earlier convicted Aman Kassaye, 25, of Battersea – the ringleader of the gang that carried out Britain's biggest jewellery raid – of conspiracy to rob, kidnapping and possessing a gun.

He was one of two men who pulled out handguns and forced staff to the floor of the New Bond Street shop in Mayfair, central London, before ordering a shop assistant to help empty rings, necklaces, watches and earrings from display cases on 6 August last year.

But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on Craig Calderwood, 27, of no fixed address, who admitted taking part in the raid but claimed he was forced into it by threats to kill him and his mother from two underworld figures known as "Kev" and "the big boss". He faces a possible retrial.

While those convicted executed the raid, it was believed the underworld bosses who planned it remained at large, the jury had been told.

Such an audacious robbery required meticulous planning, involving several hired vehicles strategically placed to block police following the getaway car.

Several factors led to the arrest of the gang. As Kassaye and Calderwood raced from the scene in a blue BMW getaway car, they collided with a black cab.

In their haste to transfer to a second vehicle, a pay-as-you go mobile phone was left wedged between the driver's seat and handbrake. A loaded sawn-off shotgun and four cartridges were found in its boot.

Anonymous numbers stored on the mobile eventually allowed police to track the movements of those found guilty. The gang – said to have been recruited by Ethiopian-born Kassaye, a drug-dealing media studies student who dropped out of St Mary's University College, Twickenham – had used several phones bought in the lead-up to the robbery.

Just hours before the raid, the two visited a Covent Garden makeup studio where they duped professional makeup artists into "ageing" them, ostensibly for a pop video.

But they later pulled off the latex, complaining it did not look realistic enough, and decided instead to use greasepaint and powder.

The two then ensured a taxi driver who dropped them off near the shop would remember them by paying the £9.20 fare with a £20 note, telling him to keep the change – the best tip he had ever received.

Kassaye, who dragged shop assistant Petra Ehnar at gunpoint from the shop to the getaway car to secure the gang's escape, drew further attention when he fired at a security guard coming to her rescue.

Then, as the BMW hit the cab, Kassaye jumped out and fired three times at Robert French, who had been having a pint outside a pub and, believing the thieves to be hit and run drivers, had given chase on foot.

The jury heard it was possible the heist had originally been supposed to take place two days before.

Both Kassaye and Calderwood, wearing makeup applied by another artist, were caught on CCTV on 4 August looking in Graff's window. But any attempt was abandoned, possibly because a routine police patrol car drove past twice.

Kassaye denied he was the black robber caught on CCTV. Admitting he bore a resemblance, he identified the man as someone called "Omar" and claimed he had been framed. Calderwood admitted he was the white man caught on CCTV, but said he had been forced to take part.

Thomas Thomas, 46, of East Finchley, who had hired a 7.5-tonne truck used to block traffic during the getaway, was earlier convicted by a 10-1 majority of conspiracy to rob.

Beyene, 25, a university graduate and convicted drug dealer released from prison a month before the robbery, bought the phones used for the raid and hired a Ford Transit van used to block police pursuing the BMW as it made its getaway.

He was convicted of conspiracy to rob by a majority verdict, as was Clinton "Jamal" Mogg, 43, who provided a flat used by Kassaye and Calderwood to have themselves aged by a professional makeup artist on 4 August, the date of the dry run or failed attempt.

Courtney Lawrence, 31, of Holland Park, west London, and David Joseph, 23, of Camberwell, south London, were earlier cleared of conspiracy to rob after denying involvement.

Two other men – Gregory Jones, 30, of Maida Vale, west London, and Benjamin McFarlane, 22, of Marylebone, north-west London – were cleared of the same charge. Its unknown where they are today.