Even after getting the last person involved to plead guilty to robbery, Crown prosecutors admitted it was a “well planned-out” crime.
In December 2010, four people clad in black entered Fairview Park Mall and made their way to People’s Jewellers.
Brandishing a gun – a fake, it would come out in court – they smashed a window and grabbed more than $200,000 worth of jewelry before fleeing to a getaway car.
Four men, all from the Greater Toronto Area, were eventually arrested in connection with the heist.
Three of them were also found responsible for a similar robbery at a People’s Jewellers in Guelph.
Those three all pleaded guilty to robbery-related charges, and were sentenced to time in prison.
The case of the last remaining accused, Mohammad Kermani, came to an end Monday when the 22-year-old pleaded guilty to robbery.
“We worked out an arrangement where he would plead to the one count of robbery and I would not proceed on the imitation firearm,” Crown prosecutor David Russell told CTV News outside the Kitchener courthouse.
While not the man brandishing the gun and not involved at all in the Guelph heist, Russell said, Kermani was an “equal partner” in the Kitchener robbery.
“His role was to use a hammer to break display cases and then scoop out as much jewelry as they could,” he said.
None of the stolen jewellery was ever recovered.
What police did find, not far from the store, were gloves and a blue bandana – which DNA tests matched to Kermani.
Still, Russell said, the case hinged on help from witnesses who saw the robbery and reported the quartet’s movements as they left the mall.
“But for those witnesses, it would have been very difficult to prove,” he said.
Sentencing for Kermani is expected in September.
Russell says he will be seeking a prison sentence of less than two years.
