A criminal network behind a series of audacious “smash-and-grab” raids on luxury London stores, which netted over £146,000 in stolen goods, will see seven of its members sentenced next week after a Metropolitan Police investigation linked the crimes to a group operating near Paddington.
Christopher Gibbs, 43; George O’Hare, 42; Paul Hughes, 42; Anthony Munday, 40; Lee James McCready, 46; Matthew Windrass, 50; and David Rigelsford, 37, have all been remanded in custody and are due to be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on March 17. The charges stem from a coordinated spree between May and August 2025 targeting high-end retailers.
The Brazen Heists
The gang’s signature method involved using sledgehammers, bricks, and vehicles to rapidly breach storefronts. Their five successful burglaries yielded £146,356 worth of watches, artwork, and designer accessories, with two further attempts failing.
One of the most valuable thefts occurred on July 1, 2025, at the Suttons and Robertsons jewellers on Edgware Road. CCTV footage played in court showed two men, identified by prosecutors as Lee McCready and Matthew Windrass, wearing balaclavas and using sledgehammers to smash windows and grab watches and jewellery valued at £59,930. The court heard the pair then fled to a waiting silver Jaguar, driven by Anthony Munday, in an incident lasting approximately nine minutes.
At the time of this robbery, Lee McCready was on licence for a murder committed in 2005. He had received a life sentence for that crime, which involved stamping on the head of Ricky Fisher, who later died. McCready was on licence from a previous five-year sentence for violent assault when he committed the murder.
Earlier, on May 8, 2025, the network targeted the Fendi store on Sloane Street. A Ford Fiesta was used to ram through the doors, allowing robbers to steal £8,350 worth of designer handbags and accessories before escaping on a motorbike and in a silver Mercedes. Christopher Gibbs, George O’Hare, and Paul Hughes were charged in connection with this raid.
Christopher Gibbs was also separately responsible for a theft at Clarendon Fine Art on Marylebone High Street in July 2025. The court heard he used a “paving block” to smash the gallery’s locked front door and steal two framed artworks with a collective value of £66,500.
Further successful raids included a cash theft at Unico in St John’s Wood in June 2025, where £1,107 was taken, and a burglary at Official Watches, a luxury broker on Duke Street, Marylebone. Two attempted burglaries—one at an apothecary in Marybone and another at a watch shop in Westminster—were unsuccessful.
Network Dismantled
The Metropolitan Police stated that forensic and investigative work linked the offences to a single criminal network. Coordinated raids on August 5, 2025, led to the arrests of Gibbs, McCready, Windrass, O’Hare, and Munday. Paul Hughes and David Rigelsford were arrested and charged on September 29, 2025.
David Rigelsford faced additional, separate convictions for a hotel robbery, two car thefts, and an attempted theft of a rucksack from a vehicle.
In court, defending Anthony Munday, lawyer Kane Sharpe said the sledgehammers used were “not carried as weapons but as tools, to carry out what was essentially a smash-and-grab burglary.”
A Recurrent Crime in the Capital
This type of rapid, high-value theft has precedent in London. In 2012, police broke up a “smash and grab motorcycle gang” that had used sledgehammers and axes to target a jeweller’s and designer stores, including a Fendi store on Sloane Street. The following year, a five-man gang stole £70,000 worth of goods from a Louis Vuitton store on the same street.
The Metropolitan Police’s focus on such organised crime operations continues, with the force also reporting a crackdown on phone thefts in early 2026 where criminal gangs were found to be exploiting children.
All seven men remain in custody awaiting their sentencing on March 17, concluding an operation against a network that repeatedly struck at the heart of London’s luxury retail district.
