TWO teenage robbers stole almost £40,000 worth of designer watches in a smash and grab raid on a city centre jewellery shop, a court has been told.

Solomon Smith, 18, and a 17-year-old boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – deny robbery and appeared for a trial at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of two men bursting into Goldsmith’s Jewellers, in Queen Street, at 1pm on Friday, March 20.

They barged a customer and his wife out of the way before one of the men used a hammer to smash a display cabinet and grab 10 Rolex watches worth £39,020. A customer was seen on the footage hiding behind a counter, while his wife fled along with shop staff into a secure back room.

Ian Hope, prosecuting, said: “This was a professional, targeted robbery by a team that came up from London in a stolen Mercedes car. One of the men shouted ‘this is a robbery’.”

Police believe at least two other men were involved in the raid, one as a look-out and another as a getaway driver.

The raid took just 30 seconds and the two robbers escaped by running along St Ebbes Street and jumping into a waiting car in Albion Place. The car was chased by police and abandoned, in Marlborough Road, off Abingdon Road.

Two teenagers were arrested later that afternoon wearing clothes matching those worn by the robbers, the court was told.

One jacket retrieved from the abandoned car contained a hammer with glass fragments in the pocket, Mr Hope said.

A second jacket containing a document with Solomon Smith’s name on it was also found.

When arrested Smith, of Croydon, South London, was also wearing the same hat, jacket, Nike trainers and tracksuit bottoms as the robber seen on the camera.

Glass fragments were found on tracksuit bottoms found in the abandoned car.

Reading a statement from Steven and wife Hilary Fleming, who were in the shop at the time of the raid, Mr Hope said: “Mrs Fleming said ‘I didn’t want to die, I felt absolutely terrified’.”

A statement from sales assistant Jeanine Hines was also read to the court.

She said: “I was terrified I was going to come face to face with him.

“My hands were shaking I was worried he was going to come into the room and attack me.”

Only five of the Rolex watches have been recovered.

The trial continues.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk