Seven men linked to a smash-and-grab criminal network stole watches, artwork, and designer goods worth more than £146,000 from high-end London stores between May and August 2025. Investigators connect the offences to a group operating near Paddington in west London.
The Defendants
Christopher Gibbs, 43; George O’Hare, 42; Paul Hughes, 42; Anthony Munday, 40; Lee James McCready, 46; Matthew Windrass, 50; and David Rigelsford, 37, remain in custody awaiting sentencing on March 17.
Broad Daylight Raid on Edgware Road
Lee James McCready, from Uxbridge and on licence for a 2005 murder conviction, joined Matthew Windrass in a daytime robbery at Suttons and Robertsons on Edgware Road. CCTV footage captures the pair, wearing balaclavas and wielding sledgehammers, smashing the shop window and grabbing watches and jewellery valued at nearly £60,000.
They fled to a silver Jaguar driven by Anthony Munday. William Sneddon, prosecuting, stated: ‘On seeing the two males leave via the store’s security cameras, Mr Keaney (the store manager) exited the store. A large crowd had gathered, and a lot of people were filming. He assessed that around five watches and some jewellery items, valued at a minimum of £59,930.00, had been stolen. The whole incident lasted approximately nine minutes.’
Kane Sharpe, defending Munday, noted: ‘The sledgehammers were not carried as weapons but as tools, to carry out what was essentially a smash-and-grab burglary.’
Fendi Store Crash with Ford Fiesta
Christopher Gibbs, George O’Hare, and Paul Hughes rammed a Ford Fiesta through the doors of a Fendi store on Sloane Street. They seized designer handbags and escaped on a motorbike and silver Mercedes.
Art Theft and Other Burglaries
Gibbs also used a paving block to break into Clarendon Fine Art, stealing two framed artworks worth £66,500 alongside an unidentified accomplice.
The group succeeded in five burglaries from May to July 2025 using similar tactics, totaling £146,356 in stolen items. Two failed attempts targeted an apothecary in Marylebone and a watch shop in Westminster.
David Rigelsford, from Kilburn, faces additional charges for a hotel robbery, two car thefts, and an attempted rucksack theft from a vehicle.
Arrests
Authorities arrested Gibbs, McCready, Windrass, O’Hare, and Munday during coordinated raids on August 5, 2025. Hughes and Rigelsford followed on September 29, 2025.
