A gang accused of robbing the millionaire chairman of the British Airports Authority at knifepoint allegedly carried out ‘similar attacks’ on others.
Sir Nigel Rudd, 63, and his wife Lesley, 64, were attacked after a gang followed them home from a restaurant to their £7 million central London home in 2011.
Lady Rudd was pinned to the floor and stripped her of valuables while the gang held a knife to her husband’s chest and demanded he open an upstairs safe. The robbers stole £84,000 worth of jewellery.
The raid is said to be one of four carried out by Gulam Gani, 47, Nicholas Lewis, 34, and Shaun Wallace, 30, in May last year, reports the Daily Mail.
All four are said to have been launched after the victims were targeted leaving expensive restaurants and other establishments in Chelsea and the West End.
Prosecutor Kenneth Millett said: ‘This case relates to a series of strikingly similar robberies concentrating on a period in May 2011, with the other robber occurring in late October 2011, where a group of men using stolen cloned cars toured central London, mainly in the evening, and targeted ostensibly wealthy individuals, lone women and the elderly.
Gani, of White City, west London, Lewis, of Romford, Essex; and Wallace of Kensington, west London, deny one count of conspiracy to rob between May and July 2011.
Lewis denies a further count of robbery said to have taken place on October 31, 2011.
Benjemin, of Ilford, Essex, denies two charges of conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
The trial continues.
