Three men have been jailed after admitting a conspiracy to burgle a jewellery shop in Tooting by breaking into a neighbouring massage parlour and attempting to tunnel through a wall.
Ioan Asafeti, Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara and Sergiu Plastin were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Friday, 23 October. Each had pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal and to cause criminal damage.
The case arose after officers were called to Mitcham Road in the early hours of 17 July. Police said the response interrupted an attempted break-in before entry was gained to the jewellery shop.
Sentences imposed at Kingston Crown Court
Asafeti, 39, was jailed for four years and 10 months. Plastin, 42, received three years and four months, while Nitisoara, 38, was given a two-year sentence. The terms amount to a combined 10 years and two months in prison.
The sentencing followed guilty pleas, rather than a contested trial. The offences for which the men were sentenced were the conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal and to cause criminal damage. That is the established criminal outcome in this case.
All three sentences relate to the same conspiracy. They should not be treated as separate rulings on unrelated incidents, nor as findings about every matter examined during the wider investigation.
Attempted entry from a neighbouring business
Police said they received reports of a suspected burglary on Mitcham Road at about 3.12am on Friday, 17 July. Officers arrested Nitisoara in a nearby alleyway and found Asafeti hiding on a rooftop after searching the area, the force said.
The officers then searched the neighbouring massage parlour, which police said the pair had entered. Inside, they found bags of tools and equipment and evidence of an attempt to make a hole through the wall into the jewellery shop next door.
The route described by police was intended to avoid the shop’s usual entrance and its security arrangements. No claim is being made that the men entered the jewellery shop itself. The confirmed court outcome concerns the burglary conspiracy and criminal damage offence to which they pleaded guilty.
Plastin was arrested later on 17 July at Stansted Airport. Police said detectives had identified a car linked to the group and used mobile-phone data to locate him. The arrest took place as he was attempting to leave the country, according to the force.
Wider inquiry remains a police account
The case formed part of an investigation led by officers specialising in commercial burglary. Police said the inquiry linked the group to several burglaries in London between May and July, mainly involving jewellers, and that goods worth more than £700,000 had been taken in those incidents.
That wider figure is the police account of the investigation, not an additional conviction announced at the Kingston hearing. The prison terms reported on 23 October are for the conspiracy and criminal damage offences admitted by Asafeti, Plastin and Nitisoara.
The July response brought the attempted Tooting break-in to an end before the planned tunnel reached the neighbouring shop, police said. With the three defendants sentenced, the court proceedings concerning this conspiracy have now concluded.
