Jail sentences for pair after TV antique expert’s Chelsea jewellery store robbed
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Two men have been handed jail sentences after a TV antiques expert was smashed in the head with a “clawhammer” during a robbery at his Chelsea jewellery store. James Dixon, 43, and Thomas Loring, 41, targeted cash-in-transit workers, Post Offices, a Poundland, and the west London jewellers in a “campaign of burglaries in the Greater London area between March and June 2024”.
On Wednesday at Kingston Crown Court, Dixon was handed 17-year extended prison sentence and Loring a 14-year prison sentence for conspiring to rob and conspiring to burgle. Dixon appeared via CVP from HMP Pentonville and Loring was in court. The pair stole up to £365,000 worth of antiques and jewellery from Bourbon Hanbury, owned by Ian Towning – who has appeared on Dickinson’s Real Deal on ITV, and Channel 4’s Posh Pawn.
Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey deemed it the most serious offence they were sentenced for. On March 26, Dixon and Loring pulled up in a car with false number plates near the Sydney Street jewellers. They wore face coverings and gloves and moved “at speed” into the arcade where the outlet is, CCTV showed.
Dixon carried a clawhammer and Loring a sledgehammer, prosecutor Rupert Kent told the court. A security guard approached Dixon who “struck him with a hammer to the head, which felled him… you then kicked him”, the judge said. “Both of you then used the implements I’ve mentioned… to try and smash your way through the front window of the jewellers unsuccessfully, you both then smashed through the locked door.”.
