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Police deny use of informant in court
Defence claim Hampstead mugger accused was ‘fingered’
AN ex-convict singled out wealthy women shopping in Hampstead’s shops and followed them home to brutally rob them of their high-value jewellery, a court has heard.
In the course of 12 months, Kevin Anthony Nevers, 41, preyed on nine women in Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park, Swiss Cottage and Hampstead, attacking each one from behind to steal gold and platinum rings worth a total of £68,000, it is alleged.
The women, mainly American citizens living or staying in the Hampstead area, were all grabbed round the throat from behind in quiet streets, usually near or inside the entrances to their homes, as they returned from shopping trips to Hampstead High Street.
Two were pregnant, while five had their young children with them at the time they were robbed.
The robber told his victims not to look at him and demanded their purses as well as their rings, generally engagement or wedding rings worth up to £10,000.
In the course of a trial, one victim of the alleged attacks testified via video-link from New York, while another gave evidence from behind a screen.
Nevers, unemployed, was convicted and sentenced to seven years jail for the robbery of a woman in the Hampstead area in 2000 which was ‘similar in fact’, the court was told.
The prosecution also allege that calls were made from Nevers’ mobile telephone to jewellers in Kentish Town and Hatton Garden after, and in one case shortly before, some of the robberies, which took place between June 13 2005 and July 12 2006.
CCTV evidence showing a man alleged to be Nevers near Belsize Park underground underground station near the time of one robbery has also been cited.
Yesterday (Wednesday) the Holborn detective sergeant in charge of the case, Paul Lincoln, was cross-examined over the evidence against Nevers.
Mr Lincoln said the lead on Nevers was provided by a Camden officer shortly after he took over the case in March 2006, and denied that any informants had been used.
But defence barrister Henry Grunwald QC suggested the evidence had actually come from an informant. He said: “Was it that there was a very firm view in your mind that Nevers was the man – not only because of what (Camden officer) Mr Pearce had said, but because he had been fingered by an informant?”
But DS Lincoln said: “No. I didn’t ask our source unit to task an informant in this case.”
Nevers, of Warham Road, Hornsey, denies nine counts of robbery.
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