Men 'carried out £1m Truro armed jewel raid', court hears
BBCA gang of armed robbers stole £1m-worth of watches and jewellery in a daytime raid, a court has heard.
Four of the men are accused of entering Michael Spiers' store in Truro, Cornwall, armed with an imitation pistol, early on 10 January.
The men are on trial at Truro Crown Court for offences relating to the robbery where another is accused of assisting the offenders.
Three additional men previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the case.
The stolen property has never been recovered.
Outlining the case for the prosecution, barrister Philip Lee told the jury the men were in the shop for less than two minutes.
One man threatened staff with a black pistol while the others used crow bars to force open cabinets, he argued.
They put £965,000 of goods in holdalls and jumped into a getaway car, before transferring to another vehicle in a nearby car park, he added.
Mr Lee told the jury that the police had traced satellite-navigation systems and mobile phones to show that one of the men, Andrius Buinevicius, had flown to the UK in October 2017.
Unregistered phone
He met with Gytis Inokaitis and made five trips to Truro over three days, the prosecution alleges.
Mr Inokaitis used an unregistered phone to buy two cars used in the robbery, the court was told.
- Tomas Bakierskis, 24, from Lithuania and Rogertas Slekaitis, 25, from Lithuania both deny possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. They previously admitted conspiracy to commit robbery.
- Andrius Buinevicius, 41, from Lithuania denies both charges.
- Gytis Inokaitis, 36, of Stuart Road in Plymouth pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery at an earlier hearing.
- Harijus Jackiaskis, 33, of Partington Lane in Manchester denies assisting an offender.
- Agris Davidonis, 30, of Petroc Court in Gunnislake previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
- Haroldas Ivanovas, 20, and Salius Mickus, 28, both from Lithuania, have previously admitted conspiracy to rob and possession of an imitation firearm.
The trial continues.
