Man, 22, is charged after £15,000 of luxury handbags were stolen in raid on business in Surrey's 'Beverly Hills'
A 22-year-old man has been charged after allegedly stealing £15,000 worth of handbags from multiple designer clothes boutiques.
Two designer stores were targeted in the space of 24 hours with the first raid reported taking place at Phoenix Style, in the Surrey town of Cobham, on January 13.
The following day Phoenix's sister store 13 miles away in Wimbledon Village, south-west London, was targeted.
Joshua Grant McKenzie, 22, of Hounslow Road, Feltham, was charged with theft today and is due to appear at Ealing Magistrates' Court on Monday.
In a phone-in on LBC on Friday, the owner of the boutique stores Paige Mengers, told Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that two men 'came armed with tools and cut through the security wires'.
As Sir Mark listened intently, Mrs Mengers went on: 'We even pressed our panic button that's connected to the local police station and yet the [Met] have not attended our store and shown no interest.'
Staff obtained 'clear CCTV' of the suspects and the number plate of their getaway car.
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week how one of her Wimbledon-based staff quit because she was so traumatised by the break-in.
Two weeks ago Paige Mengers, 53, had both of her Phoenix Style stores – one in Wimbledon, south-west London, the other in Surrey – reportedly targeted in the space of 24 hours
CCTV images captured the faces of those who came into the store in Cobham, Surrey
The images were shared on social media with an urgent appeal for information
However, the Met insisted it could not attend as the raid was a reported case of shoplifting, not robbery.
'I pointed out that it's hardly on a par with a child pinching sweets. In any case they didn't bother sending anyone. We got a crime reference number, nothing else. It would have been reassuring for my female staff to see police take this seriously,' Ms Mengers told the Mail.
After hearing her story on Nick Ferrari's breakfast show, Sir Mark promised to take Mrs Mengers's details after the broadcast and said his team would 'come back to you on that'.
Within an hour, the police force contacted her and promised that an officer would visit her in the next week to take a statement. 'It shows that sometimes you have to go to the very top to get something done,' said Mrs Mengers.
But it was only after Mrs Mengers posted a video on Instagram decrying the efforts of Surrey Police and asking the public to help her that she finally got a visit from officers two days later.
Astonishingly, one of the policemen admitted that they were only attending because of the fuss she made on social media.
Nobody from the Met visited Mrs Mengers's Wimbledon store.
In her flagship boutique, Phoenix Style, in the Surrey town of Cobham, she installed the latest CCTV, along with anti-theft devices, including security cables for the bags, among them a second-hand £16,000 Hermes Birkin.
In a phone-in on LBC on Friday, Mrs Mengers told Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that two men 'came armed with tools and cut through the security wires'
Pheonix Styles posted the CCTV images on their Instagram page on January 14
In her flagship boutique, Phoenix Style, in the Surrey town of Cobham, Mrs Mengers installed the latest CCTV, along with anti-theft devices, including security cables for the bags
Mrs Mengers paid for a private security firm to advise staff on crime prevention. Meanwhile a panic alarm linked to a police station was fitted at Phoenix's sister store in Wimbledon.
She says her case is another stark illustration of what she and many others see as the erosion of the social contract between police and public. 'Our private security firm turned up immediately - but why aren't the police protecting us?' she said.
Cobham has been called Surrey's answer to Beverly Hills. As well as footballers – it is close to Chelsea's training ground – it has been home to many Hollywood stars over the years, among them actors Antonio Banderas, Aaron Eckhart and Stanley Tucci.
The robbers struck just before 5.30pm as the Cobham store was about to close. As one held the door open, the other swaggered inside and pulled out a pair of wire cutters.
Terrified staff were left screaming: 'My god, my god.' Mrs Mengers wasn't in the store at the time but called police to vent her anger when they refused to attend.
When she received a call back she assumed they had changed their minds. 'But they simply asked if I wanted to make a complaint,' she says.
'I lost my temper and said, 'No, I want you to investigate!' But they said they could only handle a complaint.'
It was at this point that Mrs Mengers posted her video on Instagram. In it, she says: 'This was not just an attack on our business, but on the sense of safety that we and our community hold dear.'
CCTV images captured the faces of those who came into the store in Wimbledon
One staff member at the store has been left so traumatised by the incident that she quit
Addressing her local MP, Dr Ben Spencer, she says elsewhere in the video: 'As a diligent business owner who pays her business rates every month on time, I have one question for you.
'Why did Surrey Police refuse to come and help? All they could give us was a reference number.
'My staff who are members of your community were scared and shaken. Why was there no action taken to reassure them? I hope that as a community, we can strive to restore a sense of safety that has been stolen from us.'
Hours after the video appeared, the same two men struck at the Wimbledon Village store.
