A university student who targeted Rolex and Cartier watch owners in a series of Bonnie and Clyde-style robberies has been jailed for four years.
Lauren Lafayette-Ede, 20, with boyfriend Rhys Gregg-Ball, 20, picked out people selling valuables on Gumtree.com and eBay.
Well-spoken Lafayette-Ede would contact victims under the aliases of “Lucy” and “Imogen” and visit the sellers’ homes to view the watches.
Her accomplice and another youth would then move in, brandishing guns, and force the victims to hand over their property.
On one occasion Lafayette-Ede joined the attack, using a Taser on a victim in an attempt to steal his £5,000 Rolex. In another attack Christopher Mills, who was selling his Hublot Big Bang watch for £5,500, was set upon at his Kensal Rise home by two men wearing balaclavas and armed with a pistol.
A week later, the robbers held an Uzi machinegun to Dr Dominque Wong-Ahkye’s head before demanding a Rolex Daytona watch listed on eBay for £8,800, and a Polar watch.
Lindsay Price’s platinum ring with five emerald diamonds, advertised on eBay for £5,000, was stolen at his home in Wallington, near Sutton, by Gregg-Ball acting without Lafayette-Ede.
The raids began on July 17, with Lafeyette-Ede becoming involved a week later after the end of the university term.
Mastermind Gregg-Ball was jailed at an earlier hearing for eight years, and a 17-year-old accomplice was sent to a young offender institution for five years.
Also sending Lafayette-Ede to a young offender institution for four years, Judge John Lafferty, at Snaresbrook crown court, said: “Before these offences took place you were doing all that society asked of you.
“You were a hard-working, decent, honest young woman well on your way to the kind of future that would have made your parents proud and given you a rich and rewarding life.
“But you fell under the influence of Mr Gregg-Ball, and that is where this criminality springs from.
“I don’t accept that you were placed under any real pressure, other than the pressure you placed on yourself to keep your boyfriend happy.”
David Kitson, defending, said: “She was working at a fitness centre in Kent on her break from university when these offences occurred.”
