SHOCKING footage shows the moment armed robbers with hammers attack an ITV star after raiding his jewelery shop.
Ian Towning, who appeared in Dickinson’s Real Deal and Posh Pawn, and his security guard Mark Simmons were brutally attacked when robbers James Dixon and Thomas Loring robbed the store in March.
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Robbers brutally attack ITV star and his bodyguard with hammers Credit: MET Police
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This is the moment when one of the robbers hit Mr. Towning with a hammer to the head Credit: MET POLICE
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Mr Towning was left bleeding from the head after being hit with a hammer during the brutal robberyCredit: instagram/ian.towning
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He smashed ‘evil and depraved’ masked thugs who raided his shopCredit: Instagram/ITV
Shocking footage shows two men entering Mr Towning’s jewelery shop with a black bag, both armed with hammers, including one wielding a sledgehammer.
One of the robbers is then seen hitting the ITV star over the head with a hammer before pushing him to the floor.
Mr Towning said he had felt vulnerable in the eight months since the ordeal at his antiques shop in Chelsea, west London.
A masked gang managed to steal jewelery and antiques worth thousands of pounds after smashing glass cases.
Dixon, 42, from Pimlico, central London, and Loring, 41, from Mottingham, south-east London, were convicted of a series of violent robberies and burglaries – including one at Mr Towning’s shop – which they committed in and around London earlier this year.
In the raid on Mr Towning’s shop in Chelsea, London, Dixon and Mr Simmons were hit over the head with a hammer and repeatedly assaulted, while Loring brandished a sledgehammer.
Describing the devastating effect the raid had on his life, Mr. Towning told MailOnline: “It really messed me up. I haven’t slept well since and I’m constantly nervous. Even in my own garden, feeling vulnerable.
“Now I rarely dare to walk down the street, and even if I do, I don’t like someone standing behind me, and in a restaurant I sit with my back to the wall because I don’t trust anyone anymore.
“My teeth, hips, arms, shoulders and head, they all hurt and sometimes when I walk into my shop I don’t like being there anymore and it’s not good for business and Mark feels the same way.”
Yesterday, after the case against the two robbers was concluded with Loring found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery, the Flying Squad officers who caught the perpetrators described Dixon as “a loaded gun walking around ready to go off at any moment”.
Two of them, who have been in pre-trial detention since their arrest, will be sentenced in the new year.
‘VIOLENT ROBBER’
Detective Constable Tom Lockwood added: “Dixon is ready to go at any moment and unleash whatever violence is needed.
“He’s a violent robber who wants to take the money as quickly as possible and doesn’t care about the consequences.”
Flying Squad officers said Dixon and Loring had previous convictions for similar crimes and were even in the same prison before the latest crime spree.
During the raid on March 26, the offenders, who had previous convictions for robbing a post office cashier of £24,000 in 2013, used an allegedly stolen black Peugeot 208GT car with fake number plates.
The Flying Squad traced this to a known associate of Dixon’s, which Flying Squad Detective Inspector Kelly Schonhage said was a turning point in the investigation.
She added: “We relied on good, reliable detective methods. We meticulously went through hours of CCTV and looked at the history of the vehicle and that’s when we also knew it was an organized crime group (OCG) and that’s when we started looking at Dixon.”
When Loring and Dixon were arrested by the Flying Squad, the pair had just made off with £8,745 in cash after a violent attack on a post office worker on Old Kent Road, south-east London.
Dixon then spent more than £2,500 in cash at Lacoste and Hugo Boss in London’s Regent Street before, detectives said, he called one of his three girlfriends to pick him up.
“He is an extremely brazen criminal,” Det Con Lockwood said.
“One minute he’s smashing his victims, kicking them and running over them and injuring them. The next he’s spending the spoils of his crime without the slightest remorse, even using the phones in those stores to call people he knows.”
Det Ch Insp Hillier said the Flying Squad hoped for stiff sentences for Dixon and Loring because of the extent the Flying Squad was able to investigate multi-criminal organized crime groups.
After his arrest, Dixon pleaded guilty to multiple felonies related to various robberies, attempted robberies and burglaries.
Loring has pleaded not guilty to the robbery charges.
At his trial at Kingston upon Thames Crown Court, prosecuting barrister Rupert Kent described one of his roles as a ‘getaway driver’.
It is the second time Towning, who also appeared on Channel 4’s Posh Pawn, has been attacked by robbers in his shop.
In 2008, an antique jewelery specialist was left covered in blood after confronting a gang wielding sledgehammers and a gun.
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Mr Towning said he had felt vulnerable in the eight months since the ordeal
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He starred on Dickinson’s Real Deal
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CCTV footage captured the moment two armed robbers burst into an ITV star’s jewelery shop Credit: MET Police
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James Dixon and Stephen Loring were part of an organized crime network based in South London
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They damaged the window of the antique storeCredit: PA
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James Dixon, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to steal, cash robbery and possession of an offensive weapon during a hearing at Wimbledon Magistrates’ CourtCredit: PA
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Stephen Loring, 41, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery at Kingston Crown Court on November 25 Credit: PA
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It was the second time he was the target of the storeCredit: Instagram
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