‘I felt awful for telling men about mum’s diamond ring’

THE daughter of a couple subjected to a horrifying robbery in their home told how awful she felt when she realised she had told a jeweller about a diamond ring belonging to her mother.

Natalie Davies, daughter of Peter and Jacqueline Davies, was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Liverpool jeweller Laurence Levey and co-defendant Gary Warner, who are both charged with conspiring to rob Mr and Mrs Davies at their home near Leeswood, Mold, in August last year.

Three masked men dressed in black threatened to kill Mr Davies, left the couple tied up, and got away with £100,000 in cash and jewellery said to be valued at more than £40,000.

The prosecution say Mr Davies and his daughter had earlier been to Levey’s shop, Pryers in London Road, Liverpool, to buy a Rolex watch as a surprise present for Mrs Davies’ 65th birthday.

Mr Davies, a scrap metal dealer, bargained with Mr Levey, got the price down from £18,000 to £13,500, and the jeweller followed them back to Leeswood so he could be paid in cash.

John Philpotts, prosecuting, has told the jury at Mold Crown Court that Levey then identified Mr Davies as a wealthy robbery target – and the robbery occurred a short time later.

Giving evidence Natalie Davies said she travelled to Liverpool with her father to get the watch and Levey and his partner then followed them back to Leeswood.

She said her father did not want them in the house and they stopped outside. Her father went in to get the cash and they then travelled to her home close by where the transaction took place. It turned out that her father was £1,000 short and he returned home to get the additional money.

During that time she chatted to Levey about the fact she was about the get married. They talked about wedding rings and he gave her a business card. She also said she mentioned to him a lovely solitaire diamond ring her mother had.

“I later felt awful that I had mentioned it,” she said.

The jury has heard the ring was in fact a fake, but at the time Miss Davies believed it to be genuine.

The court has heard how Mr Davies, then aged 64, was bound with tape and his clothes cut from him with a knife.

The robbers also tied up his wife and threatened to kill her husband unless they revealed where their money and jewellery was kept.

Levey, 56, who lives in a flat at Coniston House, Mossley Hill Drive, Liverpool 17, and Warner, 45, of Beteler Court, Elphin’s Drive Apartments in Warrington, both deny the charges.

Warner is alleged to have been one of the three robbers after Mr Philpotts said his DNA was found on an empty tape roll left behind at the premises.