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 targeted in two separate crimes after leaving a bar on Palma’s seafront.
Senegalese migrant Mbengue Alla, 31, followed his victim out of popular La Bodeguita del Medio nightclub before squeezing his £840 iPhone while withdrawing cash from a nearby machine.
Algerians Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, robbed the holidaymaker moments later, throwing him to the ground and ripping 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 police, although officials in Spain later estimated the price at just over £100,000.
Coast of Palma. 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
Algerians Amine Benserai, 34, and Hicham Ziroki, 33, robbed the holidaymaker, threw him to the ground and ripped 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 and prosecutors said the men had attacked the robbery victim in separate incidents and were not partners in crime.
After a trial at a court in Palma, Alla was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for the watch theft.
The two Algerians were each given two years in prison for the violent Rolex robbery.
Another Senegalese man to whom the designer watch was sold for just £5,000, named Mbaye Modou Anna, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for receiving stolen goods.
The unnamed British holidaymaker was targeted in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex robbers were arrested the following month and have been in prison ever since.
They are expected to serve the full sentence, which was made public yesterday, unless they reimburse the victim for the estimated cost of his valuable timepiece.
The center of Palma. The unnamed British holidaymaker was targeted in the early hours of March 10. The two Rolex robbers were arrested the following month and have been in prison ever since.
News of the violent robbery and jail sentences for the perpetrators emerged days after two British tourists were embroiled in a horror robbery in the famous Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar and a one-year-old baby was beaten by a 31-year-old man. -old Ecuadorian man in a tourist hotspot in Barcelona.
The child’s French tourist father was photographed pushing the crying child into his arms before he and the baby’s mother quickly walked away from the attacker following the incident in the Catalan capital’s Montjuic Park on Sunday.
The suspect was initially described as a Moroccan migrant before police confirmed he was from Ecuador.
He had to appear in court on Tuesday, but was eventually admitted to a psychiatric ward of a hospital.
A British couple were among four holidaymakers targeted in Lloret hours later.
A masked robber ambushed them before demanding their money and other valuables.
One of the tourists, described as a woman, was stabbed during a struggle with the aggressor after they reportedly refused to comply with his demand.
Local news website Lloret Gaceta said the victim was “bleeding profusely” when police arrived to take her to a nearby hospital in the town of Blanes.
Mallorca has been at the forefront of demonstrations against mass tourism by locals this year, with two major marches organized in Palma. Protesters cite the lack of affordable housing due to the excessive number of Airbnb-style rental properties and noise pollution as some of the problems
The suspect in the robbery was arrested near the scene. During the arrest, a mobile phone belonging to the visitors was recovered.
Mallorca has been at the forefront of demonstrations against mass tourism by locals this year, with two major marches organized in Palma.
Protesters cite the lack of affordable housing due to the excessive number of Airbnb-style rentals and noise pollution as some of the problems.
There is no evidence that the incidents involving the baby in Barcelona, Monday’s stabbing in Lloret, or the Rolex heist in the capital of Mallorca are in any way linked to the unrest in mass tourism.