Harvey Nichols employee stole Dior bag on Valentine’s Day

A Harvey Nichols employee swiped designer goods from the store by smuggling them out in a white Range Rover, a court heard.

Ashley Bennett, 33, admitted thieving luxury items, including a Dior Saddle Bag, on Valentine’s Day two years ago.

Bennett, employed as a logistics assistant at the high-end store in Knightsbridge, helped himself to clothes and accessories worth thousands of pounds before he was finally caught.

Malachy Pakenham, prosecuting, said: ‘These matters go back quite some time now, two years ago, but that doesn’t mitigate the seriousness of this.’

He said the security manager at Harvey Nichols received an email about Dior brand clothing going missing.

A white Dior Saddle Bag was seen on the evening of February 14 but the next day it couldn’t be found and there was no log of it being sold, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

‘The CCTV in the store was looked at and around 7am on February 15 the defendant, who works as a logistics assistant for the store, was seen to take the item and place it out of view of the camera.’

When the security manager reviewed more footage, he found Bennett taking other clothes and accessories in the same way, stashing them in a blue tote bag and carrying them down to the loading bay.

There he moved the contents of the tote bag into a cardboard box and an accomplice driving a white Range Rover came to pick it up.

‘The other party driving the motor vehicle shows the defendant something on his mobile phone,’ said Mr Pakenham.

‘The defendant is seen glancing at this phone before walking over to a cardboard box. The person in the motor vehicle appears to sign some paperwork, places the box in his car and drives out of the loading bay.

‘Once the security manager saw this he was naturally suspicious.

‘He looked at CCTV from January 27, 2020 and the defendant was seen taking a similar tote bag from the loading bay to the shop floor and again it was placed in the area that is out of view of the cameras.’

A month later the security manager confronted Bennett, telling him that he had been caught on camera taking items from the store and called police.

‘Harvey Nichols is a high-end store and there are a lot of items there from leading brands,’ said Mr Pakenham.

‘I haven’t got a value but I would respectively suggest it is quite high.’

Bennett, of Ferntower Road, Highbury, north London, admitted three charges of theft by employee.

He was granted unconditional bail ahead of sentence at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 14.
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