Just take my watch, leave my wife alone

PLEA OF ROBBERY VICTIM AS GANG STOLE £40K TIMEPIECE AND TARGETED SPOUSE FOR HER WEDDING RING

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

TWO brothers have been jailed for sickening robberies in which they snatched high-end watches from affluent diners after they left restaurants.

On two occasions, Dean and Gary Stanway – career criminals from Wythenshawe – followed couples after they left Cibo Italian restaurant in upmarket Hale after spotting they were wearing luxury watches, including a £40,000 Rolex Daytona and a rare £182,000 Patek Philippe timepiece.

Now the brothers, and three other members of their gang, have been jailed after a court heard of the lasting trauma they had inflicted.

The Stanway brothers were involved in one horrific robbery in which a couple were followed and threatened with baseball bats after they enjoyed a meal in Hale before a Rolex watch was stolen.

After the couple left Cibo at 9.30pm on October 31, 2020, they were followed by a Vauxhall Astra, with its lights switched off, and the occupants of the vehicle pounced as the couple turned into Brown Street, prosecutor Joshua Bowker told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

The vehicle’s light came back on as the Astra ‘screeched’ alongside the couple and three masked men armed with baseball bats jumped out, the court was told. One of the men repeatedly shouted ‘give me your f***ing wedding ring’ to the woman, while a second robber tried to rip a Rolex watch from the wrist of her husband.

As the woman struggled to remove the band, the husband implored the robbers: “Just take my watch – leave my wife alone.” The gang grabbed the £40,000 Rolex Daytona timepiece and sped away in the Astra, leaving the terrified couple in their wake.