This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
On March 11, 2019, Victor Okumu, a 38-year-old Kenyan national, committed a brazen robbery at a jewelry shop in the United Kingdom.
Okumu, who had been planning the heist for eight months, entered the shop wearing a blue boiler suit and crash helmet with the visor down. He wedged the door open, pushed a box into an attendant, and jumped over the counter to steal jewelry from the window display.
After leaving the shop, Okumu spent the following days traversing the country in an attempt to evade police. However, upon reviewing CCTV footage, police discovered that Okumu had also surveyed the jewelry shop for days.
Okumu was eventually arrested at a hotel almost a week later, where he was found with rings from the jewelry shop, which was half of what he had stolen.
On August 21, 2019, Okumu was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with the judge describing him as a “very dangerous man who took whatever he wanted.”
Okumu's sentence includes 10 years and six months in prison, followed by a further five years on license after his release.
It is worth noting that Okumu had previously been recommended for deportation to Kenya in 2009 after serving a 13-year sentence for robbing a woman in her own home. However, he remained in the UK after his release on March 20, 2014.
