12th December, 2023
Two deadly armed robbers, Dymtro Shcherbinskyy and Ghislain Kiamuangana were jailed for a total of 22 years by the Crown Court, London on Tuesday.
Shcherbinsky and Kiamuangana have been terrorising neighbourhoods, robbing hotels at gun-point and made away with thousands of pounds.
Both men were convicted of two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery and three counts of possessing a firearm among other offences.
Kiamuangana pleaded guilty in June 2022 and Shcherbinskyy pleaded guilty following a short hearing in July 2023.
Dymtro Shcherbinskyy, 42 of Blossom Close, Romford who played a leading role was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
French national Ghislain Kiamuangana, 34 of no fixed address was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in total. This included a sentence for theft, after stealing £12,000 from a safe, while working at a hotel in 2021.
A joint and dedicated investigation by Met and City of London detectives led to long prison terms for armed robbers who stole thousands at gunpoint.
According to a release from the Metropolitan Police, the robbers were jailed for more than 20 years, with the case built on evidence gathered during days of surveillance, double shifts and CCTV trawls.
“The work led to the removal of two dangerous men, as well as a CO2 powered firearm and ammunition, from the streets of London.
“Dymtro Shcherbinskyy and Ghislain Kiamuangana were jailed on Tuesday, 12 December for a total of 22 years for robberies committed at three London hotels, following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court,” the police said.
Detective Sergeant Lee Warrington, from the Met’s Flying Squad, said combining forces to capture these two criminals was absolutely essential, and that the detectives on the team used a range of specialist techniques to bring the offending to a halt as quickly as possible.
He said the effect of such crime on individuals long after court cases come to a close cannot be understated and that he would like to commend the bravery of the victims who suffered a truly disturbing ordeal at the hands of these men.
“Thanks to the dedicated work of the officers involved in this operation, a firearm and live ammunition were taken off the streets, and two dangerous criminals have been brought to justice,” Warrington said.
Detective Inspector Colin Bishop, of the Major Crime Team at City of London Police, said this was a very serious case of armed robbery in the City and a terrifying ordeal for the victims, who were threatened with violence, saying the police were determined to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Bishop explained that the team worked closely with their colleagues from the Flying Squad to secure this conviction and put these offenders behind bars.
He said a vital part of the investigation was obtaining CCTV evidence of the offenders fleeing the scene in a van with cloned plates, saying this revealed that the crime was linked to previous robberies investigated by the Metropolitan Police Service and ultimately led to their successful arrest.
According to the Met Police, the investigation began following the first crime at a hotel on Southwark Bridge Road in Southwark, on 3 January 2022, explaining that the men entered the hotel in the early hours of the morning with their faces covered and threatened two members of staff with a gun, forcing them into a back office.
The police said the employees’ legs and hands were tied and they were forced to provide the combination to a safe and that after ransacking the tills and safe, the men stole around £4,000.
According to the Met Police, following the initial robbery, detectives trawled through CCTV and quickly made a key discovery that the robbers had used a stolen white Sprinter van on cloned number plates, and that later in the investigation, this proved a vital piece of evidence.
Six days later, a further robbery was committed at a hotel in Canning Town. The men were dressed in similar clothing to the previous robbery.
They entered and pointed a gun at a member of staff. Another staff member managed to escape after being chased by Shcherbinskyy. The pair eventually left empty handed as the staff member was unable to gain access to the safe. CCTV enquiries revealed the same van being used but it was displaying different number plates.
The police added that on 14 January, a third offence took place at a hotel in the City, as an employee was held at gunpoint while the two men stole £3,000, adding that CCTV showed the same van being used but again on different number plates, with the suspects wearing the same clothing.
The police disclosed that Shcherbinskyy was identified following extensive CCTV and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) enquiries, which led detectives to the discovery of a stolen Sprinter being filled up in December 2021 at a petrol station in Lakeside, Essex.
The police added that following the identification of Shcherbinskyy, Met detectives carried out a street trawl around Romford as they believed he was staying in the area, and they found the Sprinter van outside an address.
The police said a surveillance operation took place over nine days, with officers working double shifts, to ensure no further offences were committed while they attempted to identify the gunman.
The police said eventually, a meeting was observed between Shcherbinskyy and Kiamuangana – the gunman – in a block of flats in Greenwich, adding that the two firearm warrants were executed at their known addresses and they were both arrested.
The police discosed that a CO2 powered firearm and relevant clothing were seized from Kiamuangana’s address, while live rounds of ammunition, the stolen van and numerous sets of number plates were found at Shcherbinskyy’s address.
