Gems raiders Shane McGloin and David Kelly tracked down via exhaust clue

Published: 8th April, 2011

TWO gem thieves from Islington have been jailed for almost six years for their part in a sledgehammer raid at an exclusive jewellers – thanks to a sharp-eyed police officer.

Shane McGloin, 30, and David Kelly, 26, were part of the mask-wearing gang who smashed their way into De Beers and Omega in the City of London in August last year, making off with watches worth up to £15,000 each.

The gang, who all wore tracksuits, fled in a red BMW after using bolt cutters to get into the Royal Exchange shopping centre where the jewellers were based. 

Although the car had fake number plates a detective noticed it had a distinctive double exhaust. He called used-car dealers, eventually tracking down one which had sold a similar car after the raid. 

Once the car was traced to its new owner, forensic officers found a fragment of glass from the Royal Exchange inside and McGloin’s fingerprint on its registration certificate.

The distinctive shape of McGloin, a known jewellery thief who is thin and 6ft 6in tall, was spotted on CCTV footage of the crime.

Old Bailey Judge Peter Beaumont, who jailed each of the men for five years and nine months, hailed the “old-fashioned detect­ive work” of the police. “This was a professional burglary in all its respects,” he said. “Planning, execution and what it accomplished.”

None of the stolen jewellery has been traced, and the getaway driver is still at large. 

McGloin was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2006 for a BMW ram-raid on Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores, while Kelly was out on licence after being jailed in 2007 over the theft of £300,000 of video equipment.