Pair jailed after £180k raid on Nottingham jewellery shop

Masked burglars were seen on CCTV moments after they raided a jewellery shop

Two men have been jailed after detectives pieced together complex strands of evidence to link them to a high-value jewellery heist in Nottingham.

Approximately £180k worth of jewellery was stolen when several masked intruders raided Levins Fine Jewellery, in Upper Parliament Street, in the early hours of 4 February 2024.

A court heard the heist was “expertly executed” and “professionally planned” – and that a lack of DNA evidence and fingerprints left detectives with a complicated task to identify suspects.

The CCTV system had also been disabled by the burglars.

However, meticulous analysis of traffic cameras and mobile phone data – carried out over hundreds of hours – enabled detectives to identify a number of suspects.

Several properties were subsequently raided and damning evidence seized, including a mobile phone that contained an image of a ring stolen from the jewellery shop (below).

Christi Grigore, Gheorghe Tagarici were among those arrested in connection with the heist. Both men denied their involvement but were found guilty of conspiring to commit a burglary with intent to steal following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

A third defendant, Paulina Popa, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods while a fourth defendant was cleared at trial of having any involvement. 

The trial heard intruders gained access to Levins Fine Jewellery via a neighbouring premises that was unoccupied and had a number of rooms above the jewellery shop. They made a large hole in the floor through to the ceiling below, enabling them to climb down into the jewellery store.

Jurors heard 615 items of jewellery was stolen from the shop’s display cabinets. The total value of the items was approximately £180,000 – but the retail value was double that amount.

A safe inside the basement was also attacked, but significant efforts to get inside it – including cutting the outer metal and the chiselling of concrete – ultimately failed.

To avoid detection, the burglars disabled the alarm system and cut off the building’s electricity supply to put the CCTV cameras out of use. The court heard they returned on several occasions during an eight-hour timeframe to steal more items – none of which have been recovered.

One of the jewellery store’s owners reported the burglary to the police after discovering the break-in at around 7.30am.

The court heard the raid had a “profound effect” on the shop’s two owners. Although they were insured, they could only make a claim for the wholesale value of the stolen jewellery – not the retail value. The shop’s insurance premium has also gone up as a result of the raid.

At a sentencing hearing today (2 September), Judge Steven Coupland said the heist had a “catastrophic” impact on the business and that the financial implications “will be felt for a long time to come”.

Addressing Grigore and Tagarici, the judge added: “But for some sound detective work, you would have avoided justice.”

The judge sentenced Grigore, 40, of Rosetta Road, Basford, Nottingham, to two years and six months in prison, while Tagarici, 45, of Sandhurst Road, Bedford, was jailed for two years and three months.

Popa, 54, of Talbot Road, Luton, received a conditional discharged for 18 months for receiving stolen goods, with the judge accepting she had not taken part in the heist itself and that her involvement had been “opportunistic”.

At the conclusion of the hearing, prosecuting counsel Andy Peet placed on record his admiration for the police investigation, explaining to the judge: “It was, from what I have seen, a comprehensive investigation without which it would have been difficult to prosecute anyone.”

Judge Coupland agreed, describing the investigative work as “particularly skillful.”

Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Ben Grayson, who led the investigation, said:

“With no CCTV footage capturing the burglary, no eyewitnesses, and no forensic evidence from the outset, it was always going to be a challenge to catch up with the people responsible.

“Ultimately though, hundreds of hours of inquiries – including meticulous reviews of phone data and painstaking CCTV analysis – resulted in a number of suspects being identified.

“Further investigation confirmed the location of the suspects, some being out of the country, and subsequently these inquiries led to their arrests.

“One of the suspects, Christi Grigore, flew back into the UK four weeks after the burglary, seemingly believing the coast was clear, only to be arrested at Stansted Airport after he stepped off the plane.

“This case demonstrates that even when perpetrators conceal their faces and ensure that no forensic evidence is left at the scene, Nottinghamshire Police still has the capability and tenacity to identify, arrest and charge them, and put them before the courts.”

A Proceeds of Crime Hearing will take place next year.