Tag-team pair stole £25k Rolex from man's wrist as they pretended to break up Leeds city-centre fight
A devious duo stole a £25,000 Rolex from a man’s wrist as they pretended to break up a late-night drunken fight.
Rachid Mougoyd and Youseff Tarfasi pretended to be Good Samaritans when the scrap broke out on Briggate on a busy Saturday night.
But as they pretended to step in and help break up the brawl, one grabbed the man while the other forcefully removed the expensive timepiece from his wrist.
The pair were jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting a charge of robbery, among other offences, with the judge calling it a “fast and well-practiced attack”.
It was heard that the predatory pair travelled from Sheffield to Leeds to target vulnerable people.
Prosecutor David Ward said the victim had been outside McDonald’s at around 4am on February 23 this year when the altercation erupted involving a group of people.
CCTV footage played to the court showed Mougoyd and Tarfasi step in and appear to mediate.
After grabbing the watch they then walked away without the victim realising.
The watch had belonged to the victim’s deceased grandfather. It was never recovered.
The court heard that 32-year-old Mougoyd, of Burgoyne Road, Sheffield, had been part of a group earlier on in the night that had stolen a wallet from a drunken man on Boar Lane in Leeds.
Around £280 had been taken and the drunken victim was threatened with violence. He admitted an additional theft for his part.
Tarfasi, 31, was also under investigation for two counts of theft from September 29 last year, when he targeted women in Backroom Bar on Call Lane, stealing their phones.
He was caught by security who found six phones on him. Four were re-claimed by their owners in the bar, but the rightful owners of the remaining two were never traced.
Tarfasi, of Hinde House Crescent, Sheffield, admitted two counts of theft, along with the Rolex robbery.
They both appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds.
Mitigating for Tarfasi, John Hobley said his client had a “great deal of difficulties” as a child and was in the “full grip” of drug use.
He said he was now drug-free and was using his time behind bars “productively”.
For Mougoyd, Richard Canning claimed there was minimal force used in the Rolex robbery, but Judge Andrew Stubbs KC disagreed.
Judge Stubbs addressed the defendants and said of the robbery: “You executed a fast and well-practised attack.
“There was nothing accidental about what happened. Your victim had been targeted.”
He handed Mougoyd a 41-month sentence, with Tarfasi receiving 48 months.