How cops tracked robbery gang who stashed £65k stolen watch

The victim had left a nightclub just before 4am on April 21 when a man approached him and asked how he was.

When the victim ignored the man, but he kept demanding to talk to him.

As he tried to move away, the victim was grabbed and pushed against a shop shutter – and heard the man shout to accomplices waiting nearby that he had an expensive watch.

WATCH: Police recover £65,000 watch after violent robbery

The gang surrounded the victim and he was repeatedly punched in the head, while his arms were held down and the watch taken from him.

The gang then drove away from the scene in a black Mercedes people carrier, but patrolling police officers spotted it on Broad Street, at the junction with Sheepcote Street – and they later stopped the vehicle on Ladywood Middleway.

Just over 30 minutes later, as the men were being detained, one officer noticed two of the passengers putting their hands down the seat of the car as they tried to hide something.

The watch – an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak – was quickly recovered and returned to the victim, who had inherited it following the death of a relative.

The three men went on to admit the robbery and were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court.

Jovan Mulcare, 28, of Bentham Court, in London, was given four years and six months, while Andre Hewitt, also 28, of Bay House, Grays, Essex, was jailed for three years and nine months.

Alimi Aviz, 23, of Regents Court, Hackney, in London, was jailed for three years.

DC Stephen Foy, from West Midlands Police's Force CID, said: “This was great work by officers who were able to quickly identify the robbers.

"Just over 30 minutes after the original 999 call, we had the offenders in custody and the watch recovered.”