The crime was described in court as a ‘brazen, pre-planned and pre-meditated distraction theft’
A man who stole a £95,000 piece of Banksy artwork from a Belfast art gallery has been jailed for eight months.
Ahmed Bouazzi, 40, of Roden Street, West Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to a single count of theft. It was the prosecution case that the incident involved a “high value theft of some £95,000 worth of a piece of art which is a limited edition of a Banksy print”.
Belfast Crown Court heard that at around 4pm on April 2 this year, the deputy manager was alone in the Charles Gilmour Fine Art Gallery on Lanyon Quay, as the owner had left. She told police a man, Bouazzi, entered the gallery and started asking “random questions” about the authenticity of the artwork on display.
“He started to tower over me in an attempt to distract me and divert my attention, physically leaning over me and blocking my view while leaning over me,” she told police. A minute or so later, a second male, co-accused Adil Hajjaj, entered through the front door and she recognised him from his previous visits to the gallery.
She said Hajjaj always arrived in the gallery shortly after the owner left. The deputy manager added that she heard “rustling and movement at the back of the gallery and he then left carrying the Primark bag which contained a painting”.
Bouazzi continued asking her questions before leaving around 60 seconds later. She said she checked the back of the gallery and noticed a painting which had been on an easel was now missing, a “limited edition Banksy monkey painting which was valued at £95,000”. The painting was subsequently recovered by police from Hajjaj while he was walking along the nearby Ormeau Road in south Belfast with Bouazzi who is originally from Tunisia.
Following his arrest, Bouazzi gave no comment answers to police questions but told officers that they would not find his fingerprints on the stolen artwork. The court heard Bouazzi has eight previous convictions on his criminal record but not of them related to “acquisitive crimes”.
In a pre-sentence report, Bouazzi stated he regretted getting involved in the theft, he had never done anything like this before, it was completely out of character and he is “upset that he made someone feel bad”.
He added that he expected a custodial sentence but is “distressed about this”. Bouazzi has been assessed by the Probation Board as being a medium likelihood of reoffending.
Defence barrister Luke Curran urged the court to show “leniency” to Bouazzi and to consider an alternative option to immediate custody, such as a community-based disposal. Passing sentence on Wednesday, Judge Neill Rafferty KC described the incident as a “brazen, pre-planned and pre-meditated distraction theft of a high value item worth £95,000”.
“Cases such as this publicly require a custodial sentence because of the brazen nature of the offending,” said Judge Rafferty.
“In my view there is a general need for deterrence to protect institutions such as this gallery in question. I am satisfied that an immediate custodial of eight months is appropriate. Take him into custody.”
Last month co-accused Adil Hajjaj, who is from Morocco, was jailed for six months over the artwork theft and was told he would spend a further six months on supervised licence on his release from prison.
Hajjaj, 50, of Sandymount Street in South Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to the theft of the limited edition Banksy. He further pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods on the same date, namely a bottle of rum from Ross’s Auctioneers.
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