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Romario Henry and Ali Sesay have been jailed at Chelmsford Crown Court for 15 years and 12 years respectively over a knifepoint robbery at the home of Olympic cyclist Mark Cavendish in November 2021.
During a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, the court heard how the two men had broke broke into Mr Cavendish’s home wearing balaclavas and robbed him and his wife Peta of their high-value watches in a knifepoint raid.
Cavendish, 37, had been asleep with his wife Peta when balaclava-clad burglars broke into their home in the Ongar area of Essex at around 2.30am on Vovember 27 2021 and threatened to stab him.
They took items including two Richard Mille watches valued at £400,000 and £300,000, as well as two phones, a safe and Louis Vuitton suitcase.
MailOnline previously reported that the intruders who smashed into the couple’s £700,000 home in the Ongar area of Essex were hunting for a Richard Mille blue sapphire watch.
CCTV image taken from the property of Mark Cavendish showing suspects leaving through the open front gate after the robbery
They took items including two Richard Mille watches with a combined value of £700,000.
The timepiece – which the court was told had been loaned to Cavendish, 37, for the 2021 GQ Awards – is thought to be a limited edition worth at least £2million, with another version worn by Jay-Z.
The robbers broke into Cavendish’s home just eight weeks after he was pictured wearing it, but screamed ‘that’s not it’ when the Olympian and his wife showed them their other Mille items worth £400,000 and £300,000.
During the trial, Cavendish told jurors he was a brand ambassador for Richard Mille and was sometimes loaned timepieces to wear.
Barrister Edward Renvoize said there was a photograph of him at the GQ Awards wearing a Richard Mille watch – not one of the two stolen – which was ‘partially covered’ by his sleeve.
The watch was mentioned again in proceedings by Archangelo Power, who was representing Henry, who said intruders may have been looking for the blue sapphire watch.
Romario Henry, 31, of Bell Green, Lewisham, south-east London, denied two counts of robbery but was found guilty following a trial and sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison.
Ali Sesay, 28, of Holding Street, Rainham, Kent, admitted two counts of robbery and was jailed for 12 years.
Judge David Turner KC told the defendants as he sentenced them: “This was planned, targeted, orchestrated, ruthless offending aimed at an internationally known sportsman and his wife who happened to be brand ambassadors for exceptionally valuable Richard Mille watches.”
Sesay also admitted to six unrelated firearms offences and was sentenced to a further eight years in prison for these, consecutive to the 12 year prison sentence for the robbery.
Jurors had previously been told that two further men, Jo Jobson, from Plaistow, east London, and George Goddard, from Loughton in Essex, have been named as suspects in the case but have not been apprehended.
In a statement following the conviction last week Cavendish and his wife Peta said that ‘nothing can ever erase what our family went through’.
The statement added: ‘Reliving our family’s experience from that night in November 2021 has been an incredibly difficult experience.
‘What happened that night is something that no family should ever have to go through.
‘Although nothing can ever erase what our family went through, there is now some comfort that two men who broke into our family home and stole from us, assaulted Mark and terrified our children are now convicted and will be facing what we hope will be an appropriate sentence for their actions and we hope moves some steps in preventing this horror happening to another innocent family.’
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