Theft

Russia says Chabad stole manuscripts

Nissan Tzur — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:30:54 +0000

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has accused Chabad of theft in the latest episode in Russia’s diplomatic row with the US over the ownership of the Schneerson Library.

In mid-January, a Washington court instructed Russia to pay a daily fine of $50,000 for failing to comply with a previous order to return the collection of 60,000 religious texts — held in Russia’s national library — to Chabad. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the decision “unlawful and provocative”.

Last week Mr Lavrov hit back again. He said: “The Chasids received some books from our Schneerson Library… over ten years ago. They have not yet returned them. This should be the subject of court action.” Chabad has been trying to regain its collection since it left Russia after the Second World War.

Thefts at Jewish school

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:24:28 +0100

A 23-year-old man has been charged with repeatedly burgling a Jewish primary school.

Schneur Simmons faces four burglary charges relating to incidents at the Torah Vodaas Primary School at Golders Green Synagogue, Dunstan Road, between January 2011 and this month.

He appeared at Hendon Magistrates’ Court on Monday but did not enter a plea and was bailed to reappear next month.

£30 metal theft from shul causes gas leak

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:31:26 +0000

Metal thieves who stole copper pipe worth less than £30 from Southend Reform Synagogue caused a gas leak in the surrounding area.

Ten feet of copper pipe, which had been fitted just three months previously, was torn off in the early hours of last Tuesday.

The Westcliff-based community has since been unable to heat the building and has had difficulty finding a plumber because it is not an emergency situation.

A plumber was eventually booked to start repairs on Wednesday, but the synagogue will have to meet the £600-plus cost because of the impact on its no claims bonus if the expense was put through its insurer.

"People complain that it's cold in the building at the best of times," said synagogue caretaker Richard Levy.

He said that had it not been half-term when the leak occurred, the nearby street would have been full of children making their way to school the following morning.

The leak was not discovered until 10am.

It is the second time that the synagogue has been targeted by thieves. Lead was stolen off the roof last year. Local police are investigating the theft.

Jail term for synagogue office fraudster

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:58:23 +0100

A synagogue office worker has been jailed for eight months for stealing more than £36,000 from her community to fund a luxury lifestyle.

Susan Rudette spent the money she took from the United Hebrew Congregation in Leeds on a new kitchen, Sky TV subscription, holidays, mobile phone bills and cars.

She supplemented her income using a number of methods, including forging a colleague's signature on shul cheques and falsely claiming payments were made for cemetery and shul maintenance. On two occasions the thefts increased her salary by up to £1,000 a month.

A year after her deception began, Rudette's husband died and her family faced financial pressures, but she continued her wrong-doing.

She had started work as an administrator in the shul office in 2004, handling cash, paying bills and keeping the accounts.

The 43-year-old went on to spend £2,600 of shul money on a new kitchen at her Alwoodley home, and £1,575 on her son's mobile phone bill.

The discovery of one false payment of £647, supposedly for room hire, led officials at the Shadwell Lane shul to suspend her. But the court heard she then remotely accessed the computer system in an attempt to cover up her crimes.

Rudette, a former vice-chair of Brodetsky Primary School's parent-teacher association, admitted five charges of fraud and three of theft at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday last week. She took £36,754 in total between November 2007 and April last year.

The Yorkshire Post reported that Judge Rosalind Coe QC told Rudette that the "gross breach of trust" meant an immediate jail term had to be imposed.

Rudette's lawyer, Rodney Ferm, said she felt "obvious shame and remorse" and that many of her friends had ostracised her.

She now faces bankruptcy and has put her family home up for sale. Her father has repaid around £20,000 to the shul, with banks covering the remaining loss.

UHC president Paul Berwin said the shul would not comment on the case, but added that staff were thinking of Rudette's family and children following her imprisonment.

JC helps owners to get their Judaica back

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:38:21 +0100

Families have been reunited with Judaica stolen from their homes following an appeal on the JC website.

Eight men were arrested last month after police discovered them squatting in a house in The Ridgeway, Golders Green, with a stash of stolen goods.

The valuables included a menorah, a collection box and candlesticks, as well as jewellery, a laptop computer and a silver watch. Some of the items were of sentimental value, others were worth a considerable amount.

To help identify the owners, photographs of some of the stolen goods were posted online. Within days, Barnet police received calls from owners, who had been pleased, if surprised, to see images of their possessions.

As a result of the campaign, the men have been charged with an additional count of burglary. A police spokesman thanked the JC. "We got inquiries as a result of the publicity, some from people who were away on holiday," he said.

Jewel thief is sought

Jonathan Kalmus — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:45:39 +0100

Police have asked for the public's help in hunting a man in connection with robberies of Jewish jewellers from London and Manchester, in which thousands of pounds worth of diamonds were stolen.

Mark Cunniffe, 50, has already evaded several arrest attempts by Greater Manchester Police. He is wanted for conspiracy to steal £220,000 worth of jewellery from a diamond seller in Prestwich in June 2010.

Police believe Cunniffe was part of a high-tech operation in which sophisticated tracking devices were covertly fitted to three Jewish jeweller's cars. The man who fitted the tracking devices was jailed for four years last month.

In September 2010, £150,000 worth of diamonds were stolen in Salford. Police stopped a third robbery when a man who sold jewels for Edgware jewellers Gems of the World, discovered he was being tracked.

Jewel thief sentenced to 10 years

Jonathan Kalmus — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:02:56 +0100

A four-year hunt for an armed robber who stole £374,000-worth of Rolex and other watches in a vicious raid on a Jewish-run jewellers in Leeds, has ended with his conviction after extradition to the UK.

Estonian Algo Toomits, 31, terrified staff with a gun at the exclusive Berry's Jewellers in Leeds city centre in February 2007, while two accomplices smashed display cases with hammers and stole 30 high-value watches.Staff dived to the floor as Toomits brandished a gun, now known to have been a replica.

Toomits escaped to Estonia. He is thought to be connected to a gang that has carried out a series of international raids from the Baltic country by using budget flights to target jewellers across Europe.

He was sentenced on Monday at Leeds Crown Court to 10 years' imprisonment for robbery, and possession of an imitation firearm with intent.

Simon Walton, director of Berry's Jewellers, which has 10 stores, who is a trustee of the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board, was in the jewellers' at the time of the robbery.

"The police have done a very good job," he said. "We are happy the people have been caught."

Four years for diamond tracker thief

Jonathan Kalmus — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:19:16 +0100

Police have edged closer to catching high-tech robbers who have targeted Jewish jewellers in north Manchester after one victim helped officers target the criminal ring. He found his car fitted with a sophisticated tracking device and alerted police.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of diamonds and jewellery has been stolen in a three-year criminal operation which had been planned since 2007.

In June last year, a self-employed Jewish diamond dealer was targeted when £220,000 worth of jewellery was stolen from his car in a high-speed coordinated attack on King's Road in Prestwich. In September 2010, £150,000 worth of diamonds was stolen from another jeweller in the heart of the Jewish neighbourhood in Broughton Park.

But on Tuesday one accomplice, Shaun Flanagan, 54, of Blackley in north Manchester, admitted to conspiracy to steal at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court and was jailed for four years. He used sophisticated tracking devices covertly fitted underneath jewellers' cars and admitted to tracking vehicles over a number of days.

He was caught after a third jeweller, who was carrying £200,000 worth of pearls, believed he was being followed and alerted police when his car mechanic found the tracking device on his vehicle.

Mr Flanagan did not admit involvement in the raids but police searches on his house recovered a night vision device, radio scanners, a glass hammer, jewellery scales, an electronic gemstone gauge and papers relating to jewellers.

Greater Manchester Police said an ongoing operation was underway to catch the remaining suspects.

Detective Sergeant Simon Akker, of Salford CID, said: "Flanagan identified targets who he knew had access to valuable jewels and meticulously stalked them. This was by no means an amateur operation."

One guilty in Stamford Hill gagged and bound death

Robyn Rosen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:15:01 +0100

A Polish decorator has been found guilty of manslaughter after he left an elderly Stamford Hill woman gagged and bound to a chair while he raided her home.

Eveline Kelmenson, 83, died a "slow death" of hypothermia and lay undiscovered for five weeks before she was found by relatives on New Year's Day 2009, her decomposed body still bound to a chair.

Her five-bedroom house had been "ransacked" after two burglars broke into the basement using tools, an Old Bailey jury heard last week.

They stole a gold necklace and wedding ring, a family heirloom belonging to Miss Kelmenson's mother, who arrived in England from Russia in the late 1800s.

Kuba Dlugosz, 33, was convicted on Thursday of her manslaughter and will be sentenced on July 22.

His DNA was found on chisels left by the basement door. In October 2008, he broke into Sharon's Bakery in Stamford Hill, where he had worked as a decorator. Police identified him in that incident from DNA found on a segment of a plastic glove recovered at the scene.

Dlugosz, who is 6ft 6in and attended court in a grey tracksuit, refused to give evidence in his defence during the three-week trial.

The jury was dismissed after they were unable to reach a majority verdict on Dlugosz's co-defendant, Szymon Wyrostek, 26.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said that when Mr Wyrostek was arrested in September 2010, he told police: "I did not murder her, we went there for money. We put masking tape around her feet, you know, masking tape?"

But defence counsel Sally O'Neill QC said that the police had been "very anxious" to obtain a conviction and that they had "made up" his confession.

Mr Wyrostek, a pub cleaner, will learn today (July 1) whether he will face a re-trial of the charges.

Raid victim 'bound and left to die'

Robyn Rosen — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:10:04 +0100

A pensioner died alone in her bedroom after burglars ransacked her home and left her bound, gagged and unable to call for help.

Eveline Kelmenson, 83, lay undiscovered for five weeks before relatives found her body on New Year's Day 2009.

The men broke in through the basement of her five-bedroom home in Leweston Place, Stamford Hill, north London, an Old Bailey jury heard this week.

Miss Kelmenson had lived in the house for 50 years, the last few of which were described as "pretty solitary" since the deaths of her nine siblings.

She died a "slow death" from hypothermia, said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting. By the time her body was found it was badly decomposed.

"The defendants ransacked the house in their search for anything of value to steal. When they were done, the defendants left the house.

"Miss Kelmenson was left still bound and gagged on the floor of her bedroom. It was winter, and it was cold, and because she was alone in the house, she had no means of escape or alerting others to her plight. It must have been a terrifying experience.

"Miss Kelmenson did not, as the defendants should surely have realised, have the physical strength to loosen or escape from the bindings and, most tragically, because she led an independent but solitary life, neither did anyone else come to her aid."

Miss Kelmenson was said to be extremely security conscious and a British Gas engineer told the court she kept all doors locked and told him people had broken in previously.

The burglars took a gold necklace and a wedding ring, a family heirloom belonging to her mother, who arrived in England from Russia in the late 1800s.

Councillor Simche Steinberger, who had known her for many years, described her as "independent".

Two Polish men deny her manslaughter. Kuba Dlugosz, 33, and Szymon Wyrostek, 26, also deny charges of burglary.

Three chisels were found by police next to the basement door and had been used, Mr Laidlaw said, to force entry. Mr Dlugosz's DNA was among others found on the tools and this led to his arrest in July 2010.

Mr Laidlaw claimed that Mr Dlugosz had previously committed burglary in Poland and the UK, and had tied up people and applied tape as a gag.

He said both men had committed offences near to Miss Kelmenson's home in the period leading up to her death, including in October 2008, when Mr Dlugosz allegedly burgled Sharon's Bakery in Stamford Hill.

When Mr Wyrostek was arrested, he told police: "I did not murder her. We went in there for money. We put masking tape around her feet."

Defending Mr Dlugosz, Hugh Blake-James raised questions about the risk of DNA contamination.

The case continues.