Pair jailed for plot to rob Eurochange in Staines

A man and a woman have been jailed after carrying out a robbery at a Eurochange store in Staines-upon-Thames in April this year.

On the morning of 17 April, police received a call from a woman in distress who said the store she worked in, Eurochange in Elmsleigh Shopping Centre, had just been robbed.

The woman said she had arrived at the store at 8.30am for her shift, when a man wearing a balaclava pushed his way in. She claimed he had slapped her, threatened her with scissors and forced her to empty the safe, before tying her hands together with Sellotape. The man then fled the store with £67,000 in cash.

Detectives began noticing inconsistencies in her account, notably that she kept changing her reason for not pressing the store’s alarm button, first saying the man had stopped her from doing so and then claiming that it didn’t work.

CCTV also showed the man and woman entering the shopping centre almost simultaneously, with the man clearly on the phone to someone as he was walking.

Due to their suspicions, detectives analysed call data for the woman’s phone, which showed that she was often in contact with the same number and that on the morning of the robbery, there had been contact with the number six times.

Further analysis of the second phone number showed that it was linked to a pre-paid unregistered device, however, it had also been used in second handset which was registered. This handset had been sold to a cash converter shop on 11 April.

CCTV from the shop on the date of the sale led them to identifying their prime suspect, Omar Chowdhury.

Chowdhury was arrested on 20 April at his home, where officers found the same clothing worn by the suspect during the robbery.

The woman, Shaaera Begum, was also arrested on the same day at her home. Both of their mobile phones were seized and later showed how the robbery plot unfolded between them.

Begum texted Chowdhury to say that he should give her a black eye during the robbery and that she would have to ‘milk it’ for it to be believable. In response, he said ‘yeah, I’ll kick you whilst you’re on the floor’. After the robbery he again messaged Begum, declaring ‘I just committed armed robbery’.

With the evidence stacking up against them, the pair were charged and later pled guilty to conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

Omar Chowdhury, 25, of Sumatra Road in Camden and Shaeera Begum, 21, of Staines Road in Feltham were each sentenced to one year and six months’ imprisonment at Guildford Crown Court today (28 July).

Omar Chowdhury (above)

Shaeera Begum (above)

Investigator Tania Watson, who helped to investigate the case, said: “It’s clear that Chowdhury and Begum thought they had concocted a fool-proof plan to steal a large sum of money and would face no consequences for doing so.

“Fortunately, due to good old-fashioned police work and their own lack of judgement, their plot was quickly foiled. I hope that their time behind bars gives them ample time to reflect on their appalling behaviour.”