Bournemouth Man Jailed Over Armed Robberies

4 February 2011, 13:07 | Updated: 16 February 2011, 14:40

A man who was part of a gang that carried out a series of armed robberies across the south coast has been jailed for 12 years.

28 year old Anthony Baddow from Bournemouth and four other men targeted over 30 stores between 2008 and 2009, including in Bournemouth, Southampton and Chichester.

Using axes and sledgehammers to break in -they managed to steal over 3 and a hald million pounds worth of jewels.

Flying Squad officers were first alerted to the linked raids in January 2009 and took responsibility for robberies in all parts of the country.

They discovered ringleaders would select jewellery shops, conducting reconnaissance missions before purchasing equipment and weapons.

These men would then recruit criminal associates based in south-east London to commit the robberies.

The network began to unravel on March 31, 2009, when five men were arrested while raiding Mappin & Webb jewellers in Guildford.

A police officer videoed two men wearing white overalls smashing the windows of the store with sledgehammers as colleagues pulled up to catch them.

A second undercover operation on May 18, 2009, led to the arrest of four more men as they prepared to raid David Dudley jewellers in Marlborough.

Stewart, Bado, Chambers and Billy and Danny Johnson were convicted of carrying out 18 conspiracies to commit robbery and 16 counts of conspiracy to burgle.

Stewart, of Maidstone, was jailed for 14 years; Bado, of Bournemouth, was jailed for 12 years; Chambers, of Bromley, was jailed for nine years and nine months; Billy Johnson, of Peckham, was jailed for 10 years and eight months and his brother Danny, also of Peckham, was jailed for 11 years and four months.

Others jailed today were men aged between 20 and 50 from Eltham, East Dulwich, New Cross, Brockley, Forest Hill, Nunhead and Greenwich.

They were imprisoned for between four-and-a-half-years and 15 years. One man received 17 months in a young offenders institution.

The gangs targeted shops in Windsor, Eastbourne, Southampton, Maidstone, Kensington, Bournemouth, Richmond, Bristol, Plymouth, St Albans, Tadley, Sittingbourne, Southend, Brighton, Wimbledon, Chichester, Worthing, Dorking, Rickmansworth, Bury St Edmunds and Nantwich.