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Muggers stole £1m cash and gems from women in 84 attacks
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent22.09.09
The serial mugger who attacked fashion designer Nicole Farhi stole up to £1 million in cash and designer jewellery from his wealthy women targets.
Daniel Mykoo, 29, admitted 84 robberies of lone women in affluent suburbs such as Hampstead and Chelsea, often being helped by his brother Matthew in a “strangler-robber” team.
The pair were described today as “the most persistent robbers in London in recent memory”.
Apart from Farhi, wife of playwright Sir David Hare, victims included a judge's wife who feared she was going to die when she was attacked and robbed of a £30,000 ring.
In an impact statement read to Wood Green crown court today Fiona Lindblom, who was struck on her doorstep in west London, described how she was “violently sick” for three days.
BBC news reporter Sangita Myska, who was attacked outside her home in Belsize Park, feared she was going to be “seriously sexually assaulted”. When one of her rings would not come off one of the attackers said: “Take the finger off then.” She said she felt her neck was twisted so hard it was close to being broken.
While Daniel acted as the strangler, grabbing victims from behind and throttling them to within an inch of their lives, Matthew, 27, would remove earrings, necklaces and watches.
The court heard that Daniel had boasted to police about the technique, which he called “the sleep hold”.
The total value of money and jewellery plundered by Daniel and Matthew to feed their £12,000-a-month crack habit is estimated at up to £1 million.
Matthew, of Brent, was convicted of seven robberies, having previously admitted two attacks. He was cleared of eight, including the one on Farhi.
Daniel, of Fulham, had earlier admitted 19 attacks including the assault on the designer. After his brother's trial he admitted another 65 robberies — including 50 more using his strangulation technique — dating back to 1999.
Judge Nicholas Browne was considering a life sentence or an indefinite term for public protection.
Reader views (5)
we all have dark and light thoughts. this man has black ones.walk in the light while ye may.
this mans soul would go to hell for his freeloading crack.put 'em to work.i do not own a thirty thousand pound ring, nor am i a third of the commonwealth, earning less than a doller a day. once in a while upside down policing gets the right man. rot in hell...
- Paul Josling, london
No they are born here and went to quite decent schools its a case of they first time they were arrested they werent punished enough and thought crime is easy
- Steve, london
These imported illegal criminals that New Labour Do Gooders pander too at every level must get indefinate sentences or deported. We have become the scum dumping country of the world. The victims deserve justice.
- Patrick Mc Crossan, Birmingham
They are from the French Caribbean? How the hell did this scum wind up in our country?
- A. Richardson, Sheffield UK
This pair of violent waste of spaces certainly do need to be deported back to their mother country. Either to serve sentence there, or on release.
- James, London
