A British tourist was robbed for his £150,000 designer watch after his mobile phone was stolen moments earlier during a night out in Mallorca.
The 55-year-old tourist was the subject of two separate crimes after leaving a bar on Palma’s seafront.
Senegalese migrant Mbengue Alla, 31, followed his victim out of popular nightspot La Bodeguita del Medio before pinching his £840 iPhone as he withdrew cash from a nearby ATM.
Algerian men Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, assaulted the tourist moments later, throwing him to the ground and snatching his diamond Rolex President Day-Date watch from his wrist before fleeing the scene.
The owner valued it at £150,000 when he reported it to the police, although Spanish authorities later put its price at just over £100,000.
Palma promenade. A British tourist was robbed for his £150,000 designer watch after his mobile phone was stolen moments earlier during a night out in Mallorca.
Algerian men Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, assaulted the tourist, threw him to the ground and snatched his diamond Rolex President Day-Date watch from his wrist before fleeing the scene. The owner valued it at £150,000 when he reported it to the police.
Details of the shocking crimes emerged overnight after the trio responsible were taken to court with prosecutors saying the men had attacked the robbery victim in separate incidents and were not accessories to the crime.
Alla was sentenced to three months of suspended prison for the theft of the watch after a trial in a court in Palma.
The two Algerians were sentenced to two years in prison each for the violent theft of the Rolex.
Another Senegalese who was sold the designer watch for just £5,000, called Mbaye Modou Anna, received a six-month suspended prison sentence for receiving stolen goods.
The unnamed British tourist was attacked in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex thieves were arrested the following month and have remained in prison ever since.
They are expected to serve their sentence, made public yesterday, in full unless they compensate the victim for the estimated cost of his valuable watch.
The center of Palma. The unnamed British tourist was attacked in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex thieves were arrested the following month and have remained in prison since
News of the violent robbery and prison sentences for the perpetrators emerged days after two British tourists were caught up in a horror robbery at the famous resort of Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava and a one-year-old baby was slapped by a 31 year old man. -Old Ecuadorian man in a tourist spot in Barcelona.
The boy’s French tourist father was photographed carrying the crying youngster in his arms before he and the baby’s mother quickly walked away from the attacker following Sunday’s incident in the Catalan capital’s Montjuic park.
The suspect was initially described as a Moroccan migrant before police confirmed he was from Ecuador.
He was due to appear in court on Tuesday, but ended up being admitted to a hospital psychiatric unit.
A British couple were among four tourists attacked in Lloret hours later.
A masked assailant ambushed them before demanding their cash and other valuables.
One of the tourists, described as a woman, was stabbed during a struggle with the attacker after they reportedly refused to comply with her demand.
Local news website Lloret Gaceta said the victim had been “bleeding profusely” when police arrived to take her to a nearby hospital in the town of Blanes.
Mallorca has been at the forefront of local protests against mass tourism this year, with two large marches organized in Palma. Protesters cite a lack of affordable housing due to excessive Airbnb-style rentals and noise pollution as some of the problems.
The robbery suspect was arrested near the scene. During the arrest, a mobile phone was recovered from the visitors.
Mallorca has been at the forefront of local protests against mass tourism this year, with two large marches organized in Palma.
Protesters cite a lack of affordable housing due to excessive Airbnb-style rentals and noise pollution as some of the problems.
There is no evidence to suggest that the incidents involving the baby in Barcelona or Monday’s stabbing in Lloret, or the Rolex robbery in the Majorcan capital, are in any way related to the mass tourism unrest.
