A gang who targeted rich Londoners including Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and BAA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd in a string of terrifying raids were today jailed for a total of 53 years.
Sir Nigel, 66, and his wife Lesley were among the victims of the brutal gang who plundered £84,000-worth of jewellery from their house after they followed the couple home from a restauarant.
They were confronted on the doorstep of their £7m Belgravia residence before Lady Rudd was pinned to the floor and robbed of her valuables, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Sir Nigel gave evidence and described how his wife feared for his life when the robbers found the safe was empty.
The raid was one of four carried out by Gulam Gani, 47, Nicholas Lewis, 34, and Shaun Wallace, 30, during a three-week robbery spree in May last year, the jury at Southwark Crown Court heard.
The gang were today jailed for conspiracy to rob. Gani was sentenced to 18 years, Lewis 20 years and Wallace 15 years.
The court was told that the men had dozens of previous convictions for robbery and possessing weapons spanning a decade.
His Honour Judge Martin Beddoe said: "The evidence was overwhelming. You have not shown a scintilla of remorse, you are hardened criminals.
"The victims all feared that their lives would be taken from them."
He said the raids were pre-meditated with the robbers taking care to cover their tracks by wearing gloves and avoiding leaving evidence behind.
The court had previously heard that the gang carried out three “strikingly similar” attacks to the raid on the Rudds. They robbed banker Elizabeth Kaye, Jennifer Boschetto, and Rosemary Foyle, in May 2011 in raids in which £83,000 of jewellery was snatched.
Wealthy private banker Ms Kaye told the court how she was bundled to the ground by two masked robbers and stripped of £40,000 of jewellery yards from her Hampstead home.
In victim impact statements read out to the court by the prosecutor Stephen Apted, Lady Rudd, 66, said she no longer felt safe in London. The couple have moved home as a result of the attack.
The statement said that Lady Rudd "remembers how she felt when she thought they would kill her or her husband".
The court also heard that Ms Boschetto, 59, had lost full use of one of her hands as a result of the robbery.
Ms Foyle, 57, said: "The feeling of someone putting a large heavy glove over my mouth and being violently swung to the floor is something that I cannot forget for the rest of my life."
However she said that as a devout Christian she had been able to recover from the trauma.
She added: "Had I not been a devout Christian I doubt whether I would have been able to set foot outside my door again. May God forgive them."
All four robberies were carried out after the victims were targeted leaving restaurants in Mayfair, Chelsea and the West End.
It is understood that the gang was also responsible for robbing Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in November 2010.
Ecclestone, 80, was on his way home to his penthouse in Knightsbridge when he was attacked.
He suffered a black eye and the gang escaped with £200,000 worth of valuables from him and his then girlfriend, now wife, Fabiana Flosi, 31, in Knightsbridge. Among the items were a watch and diamond ring.
It is believed the gang carried out up to 30 raids in total together.
Gani, of White City, Lewis, of Romford, and Wallace. of Latimer Road, were convicted of conspiracy to rob between May and July last year. Lewis was also found guilty today of a fifth robbery in October last year when Barbara Walker had a £75,000 ring torn from her finger.
Radcliffe Benjemin, 55, of Ilford, was found not guilty of two charges of conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Gani and Lewis have previous convictions for robberies.
