Overview
- A Croydon Crown Court jury returned four guilty verdicts on Monday, 30 March, bringing the total to ten convictions and setting sentencing for 15 July.
- The gang raided six O2 and Three stores in May and June 2025, with about £30,000 in phones taken in Woolwich and staff threatened in several back-room heists.
- The Met’s Flying Squad used CCTV, phone data, forensic work and surveillance to track the group and then blocked a getaway car in Sutton before arrests.
- Ringleader Sammie Govera recruited teenagers through a Snapchat group called '8.30am', according to detectives who said the platform did not respond to their data requests.
- Police say these results form part of a wider push that cut back-office phone-shop raids by 93% since June 2025 and reduced London phone thefts by 10,000 in a year, helped by drones, e-bikes and live facial recognition.