€46m jewel thieves ‘used latex disguise’

TWO robbers who pulled off Britain’s biggest jewellery heist may have concealed their identities with film-style rubber masks.

The duo were said to have hired an unsuspecting professional make-up artist to disguise their faces using liquid latex shortly before they made off with a £40 million (€46.4m) haul in a raid on an exclusive London jewellers.

According to The Sun newspaper, the 29-year-old freelance make-up artist, who cannot be identified for his own safety, also altered their hair colour and skin tone in a four-hour session, for which he charged a £450 (€522) fee.

The newspaper reported that forensic experts had seized items including hairbrushes, gowns and bank notes from a make-up studio in Covent Garden, west London.

However, a Metropolitan Police spokesman yesterday declined to comment on this line of inquiry.

Poor quality footage recorded by an eyewitness on a mobile phone captured the moment the robbers fired a gun as they escaped with 43 items of jewellery. The men can be seen calmly walking towards a blue BMW holding a woman staff member as someone shouts: “Call the police, call the police.”

Several security men and possibly one passer-by then move towards the smartly-dressed pair before a gunshot rings out.

A source close to the inquiry said it could not be ruled out that the men intended to harm or kill one of their pursuers and it was not a warning shot.

Investigators are trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage to piece together the robbers’ exact escape route. They are looking for at least two accomplices who helped the men escape from Graff Jewellers in London’s West End last Thursday.

Officers have recovered a blue BMW abandoned in a nearby street after it collided with a black taxi just seconds after the raid.

Detectives believe the two men may still be in London. Officers who interviewed shop staff believe the men had genuine London accents, despite the fact little was said and the robbery was over in under two minutes.

A source said speculation an eastern European crime syndicate such as the Pink Panther gang may be behind the raid is probably wide of the mark.

Officers arrested and questioned a 50-year-old man in Ilford, east London, on Monday. They suspect the man, who has been released on bail, may have been involved in planning the raid, though he was not in the West End when it took place.