Prosecutors urges jury to find man behind Gleneagles robbery guilty

A PROSECUTOR has urged jurors to return a guilty verdict against a man who allegedly stole watches worth more than £500,000 from a five star hotel.

The robbery took place at Gleneagles. Picture: Getty Images

Advocate Jane Farquharson told a jury on Monday that there was enough evidence available to convict Richard Fleming,42, of robbing a boutique at Gleneagles Hotel.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that police had conducted a “painstaking and meticulous” investigation into the armed robbery at the Perthshire resort in June 2017.

Ms Farquharson told the jury that detectives had concluded that Mr Fleming was a member of the three man team who carried out the raid.

The court had earlier heard Mr Fleming, of Dulwich, London, claim that he didn’t commit the armed robbery.

He told jurors that at the time of the offence, he was buying drugs in Parkhead, Glasgow.

• READ MORE: Two men in court over £500,000 armed raid at Gleneagles

But Ms Farquharson said that evidence led during the trial showed that Mr Fleming was partly responsible for the robbery.

Speaking about Mr Fleming’s claims of innocence, Ms Farquharson said: “I would suggest that is incredible and inherently unreliable.”

Ms Farquharson was speaking on the 10th day of proceedings against Mr Fleming. He denies armed robbery and other charges.

Prosecutors claim that on June 27 2017, at Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Perthshire, Fleming did, while acting with others and with his face masked, assault a hotel employee called Louis Hutchison.

It’s alleged that was in possession of “hammers, a machete and a self loading pistol” at the time of the assault.

Prosecutors also claim that on the same date at the Mappin & Webb boutique at Gleneagles, Fleming entered Mappin & Webb at Gleneagles and placed employees Joseph McIvor and Daniel Horne in a state of fear and alarm.

It’s then claimed that he repeatedly struck and smashed display cabinets at the shop before robbing the premises of a “quantity” of Rolex watches.

It’s also alleged that on the same date, at Gleneagles, Fleming assaulted hotel security supervisor Euan Wishart by brandishing a hammer at him before repeatedly pointing a pistol at him.

It’s claimed that Fleming threatened him with violence.

He has entered pleas of not guilty to the charges and has entered a special defence which states that at the time of the Gleneagles robbery, he was in Parkhead, Glasgow,.

The trial, which is being heard before Lady Carmichael, continues on Tuesday when defence counsel Brian McConnachie QC addresses the jury with his closing speech.