British woman hunted after £20m jewel heist

A BRITISH woman is believed to be part of a gang that pulled off Japan’s biggest jewellery heist.

Japanese police have contacted Interpol in the search for the woman and her three Serbian accomplices suspected of snatching more than 20 million worth of jewellery from a shop in the capital, Tokyo.

The gang, none of whom has been named, escaped with 12 pieces of jewellery from Le Supre-Diamant Couture de Maki, in Tokyo’s swish Ginza district, including the shop’s prized piece.

The Comtesse de Vendome, a 125-carat, 15 million necklace, which had been on display at the shop since it opened in 1991, is studded with 116 diamonds.

Tokyo police have already obtained arrest warrants for the four - two men and two women - on charges of assault and robbery, although they were unable to catch them before they left the country on separate flights from Tokyo and Osaka the day after the robbery.

According to police, the two women helped plan the raid by visiting the store and posing as customers and then acting as lookouts while the two men carried out the theft.

The gang posed as English customers before they immobilised an employee with pepper spray and used hammers to smash through reinforced glass showcases and grab the jewellery.

All four escaped on motorcycles and stayed at a hotel in Tokyo for a night before fleeing the country under fake Croat and Czech passports.

All four boarded flights for Paris, and Japanese police have asked Interpol to place them on its international wanted list.

Details of the raid, which took place on 5 March, only emerged yesterday.

Japanese police have refused to comment on the investigation on the grounds that the case is ongoing, although it has been confirmed that the British woman is in her 50s, the two Serbian men are in their 30s and the other woman in her 20s.

Fingerprints left at a hotel room matched those of a man on an Interpol wanted list in connection with a robbery in Europe in 1999.

Hotel records show the gang members made frequent calls to Sri Lanka during their stay and it is believed they might have already used the black market to dispose of the gemstones.