Three plead guilty to attempted burglary after trying to tunnel into south London jewellers

Three men have admitted to plotting a burglary of a south London jewellery shop - with body-camera footage showing their tunnel for the heist.

Ioan Asafeti, 39, Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara, 38, and Sergiu Plastin, 42, were arrested on 17 July after a wider investigation linked them to a series of burglaries worth more than £700,000.

The officers said that they were called to reports of an attempted burglary at a property on Mitcham Road, Tooting, arriving just after 3am.

Stills of body-worn camera footage from the Metropolitan Police show that two of the men had broken into a massage parlour, where they had tried to dig a tunnel into the neighbouring jewellery shop.

Asafeti and Nitisoara, both of no fixed address, were arrested at the scene. Plastin, of Portadown, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, was arrested later that day at Stansted Airport as he tried to flee to Ireland.

Further enquiries through Interpol found the group had possible links to similar offences in Europe, the Met Police said, adding they were tied to several burglaries across London between May and July.

At Kingston Crown Court on Friday, the three all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal and cause criminal damage.

Detective Superintendent Dan Mitchell, of the Met Police's Flying Squad, said the trio "dug their own hole after emergency response officers caught them red-handed".

"Their arrests didn't just stop this burglary," he added. "They formed part of a wider Flying Squad investigation that uncovered an organised crime group linked to a string of jewellery shop break-ins across London worth more than £700,000.

"Our message to these criminals is clear: target London businesses and we'll hunt you down and put you before the courts."

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The three men will be sentenced on 23 October.

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