A Kenyan national who stole jewellery worth Sh55 million (£441,640) in the United Kingdom was last week jailed for 15 years after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
According to reports in the British media, the convict, Victor Okumu, 38, was jailed at York Crown Court to 10 years and six months and a further five years on license following his release.
The judge who sentenced him described the convict as a “very dangerous man who took whatever he wanted.”
During his sentencing, the judge said the incident was a “planned, sophisticated, commercial robbery” which Okumu had planned for months.
Okumu committed the crime on March 11, 2019, when he is reported to have entered the jewellery shop wearing a blue boiler suit and crash helmet with the visor down.
Police said he wedged the door open and pushed a box into an attendant before jumping over the counter. Okumu then took jewellery from the window display and left.
Okumu spent the following days traversing the country trying to evade police and upon reviewing CCTV footage, police discovered the suspect also surveyed the jewellery shop for days.
He had reportedly been planning the robbery for eight months.
After his arrest at a hotel, almost a week later, he was found with rings from the jewellery shop which was half of what he had stolen.
Back in 2009, Appeal Court judges recommended that Okumu be deported to Kenya at the end of a 13-year sentence for robbing a woman in her own home.
Okumu, however, remained in the UK after his release on March 20th, 2014.
