Fraudster ‘stole £4m diamonds by swapping them for pebbles’

A conwoman posed as a diamond expert to steal £4.2million worth of gems from a Mayfair jewellers by swapping them for pebbles, a court heard today.

Lulu Lakatos was pretending to be a gemologist inspecting the diamonds when she switched them while staff were distracted, jurors were told.

In a raid likened by police to the thefts in the Ocean’s Eleven films, Georgeta Danila, 52, then allegedly appeared to help her into a disguise in pub toilets before they left the country.

Danila is now on trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where prosecutor Susannah Stevens described a ‘sophisticated, well-planned and ingeniously orchestrated conspiracy’. Danila is said to be part of a team of criminals behind the theft at Boodles in 2016, the court heard.

Lakatos is still being extradited while accomplices Mickael Jovanovic and Christophe Stankovic have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy.

Boodles chairman Nicholas Wainwright was contacted the month before the theft by a diamond buyer, jurors were told.

They agreed to meet in Monaco, where Mr Wainwright was introduced to two men claiming to be Russian businessmen, who settled on buying seven diamonds. They asked for a gemologist to inspect them prior to purchase. On the day of the robbery, four of the gang were seen pretending to window shop in Mayfair while Lakatos, posing as ‘Anna’, headed to Boodles, jurors were told.

She was seen on CCTV leaving and placing a ‘purse-like object’ into an unknown woman’s bag, the court heard. She went into pub toilets, where Danila followed her with luggage, said the prosecutor, before Lakatos emerged in a new outfit. Danila, of no fixed address, denies a charge of conspiracy to steal. She was extradited from France in July.

The trial continues.