A British tourist was mugged for his £150,000 designer watch after having his mobile phone stolen moments earlier during a night out in Majorca.
The 55-year-tourist was targeted in two separate back-on-back crimes after leaving a bar on Palma’s seafront promenade.
Senegalese migrant Mbengue Alla, 31, followed his victim out of popular nightspot La Bodeguita del Medio before pinching his £840 iPhone as he took out cash from a nearby hole-in-the-wall machine.
Algerians Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, mugged the holidaymaker moments later, throwing him to the ground and snatching his diamond Rolex President Day-Date watch off his wrist before fleeing the scene.
The owner valued it at £150,000 when he reported it to cops, although officials in Spain later put its price at just over £100,000.
Palma seafront. A British tourist was mugged for his £150,000 designer watch after having his mobile phone stolen moments earlier during a night out in Majorca
Algerians Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, mugged the holidaymaker throwing him to the ground and snatching his diamond Rolex President Day-Date watch off his wrist before fleeing the scene. The owner valued it at £150,000 when he reported it to cops
Details of the shocking crimes emerged overnight after the trio responsible were hauled to court and prosecutors said the men had targeted the robbery victim in separate incidents and were not partners in crime.
Alla was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for the watch theft following a trial at a court in Palma.
The two Algerians were jailed for two years each for the violent Rolex robbery.
Another Senegalese man they sold the designer watch to for just £5,000, named as Mbaye Modou Anna, received a six-month suspended prison sentence for receiving stolen goods.
The unnamed British holidaymaker was targeted in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex robbers were arrested the following month and have been held in prison since.
They are expected to be made to complete their full sentence, made public yesterday, unless they compensate the victim for the estimated cost of his valuable timepiece.
The centre of Palma. The unnamed British holidaymaker was targeted in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex robbers were arrested the following month and have been held in prison since
News of the violent robbery and the prison sentences for the offenders emerged days after two British tourists were caught up in a horror mugging in the famous Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar and a one-year-old baby was slapped by a 31-year-old Ecuadorian man in a tourist hotspot in Barcelona.
The child’s French tourist dad was pictured swooping the crying youngster up in his arms before he and the baby’s mum quickly walked away from the attacker following the incident on Sunday in the Catalan capital’s Montjuic Park.
The suspect was initially described as a Moroccan migrant before police confirmed he was from Ecuador.
He was due to appear in court on Tuesday but ended up being admitted to a hospital psychiatric unit.
A British couple were among four holidaymakers targeted in Lloret hours later.
A masked mugger ambushed them before demanding their cash and other valuables.
One of the tourists, described as a woman, was stabbed during a struggle with the aggressor after they reportedly refused to comply with his demand.
Local news website Lloret Gaceta said the victim had been ‘bleeding heavily’ when police arrived to take her to a nearby hospital in the town of Blanes.
Majorca has been at the forefront of anti-mass tourism demonstrations by locals this year, with two large marches organised in Palma. Protestors cite lack of affordable housing because of the excess number of Airbnb-style rentals and noise pollution as some of the problems
The robbery suspect was arrested close to the scene. A mobile phone belonging to the visitors was recovered during the detention.
Majorca has been at the forefront of anti-mass tourism demonstrations by locals this year, with two large marches organised in Palma.
Protestors cite lack of affordable housing because of the excess number of Airbnb-style rentals and noise pollution as some of the problems.
There is no evidence to suggest the incidents involving the baby in Barcelona or Monday’s stabbing in Lloret, or the Rolex mugging in the Majorcan capital, are in any way linked to the mass-tourism unrest.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
