Two “dangerous criminals” who robbed a Southwark hotel at gunpoint have been jailed for a combined 22 years.
Dymtro Shcherbinskyy, 42, and Ghislain Kiamuangana, 34, held up three London hotels in just twelve days in January 2022.
In the Southwark Bridge Road robbery, they tied up employees’ legs and hands before ransacking the safe and tills for £4,000.
The pair were convicted following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday, December 12.
The police investigation began when the duo robbed a hotel on Southwark Bridge Road in the early hours of January 3, 2022.
With their faces covered, the duo entered the building and threatened staff members with a gun, forcing them into a back office.
The employees’ legs and hands were tied and they were forced to provide the combination to a safe. After ransacking the tills and safe the men stole roughly £4,000.
Detectives trawling through CCTV footage discovered the robbers had used a stolen white Sprinter van with cloned number plates.
Six days later, the pair committed another robbery at a hotel in Canning Town.
Dressed in similar clothing to the previous robbery, the men entered and pointed a gun at a member of staff.
One staff member escaped after being chased by Shcherbinskyy.
The pair left empty-handed as the staff member couldn’t gain access to the safe.
They committed their third offence at a hotel in the City, stealing £3,000 on January 14.
CCTV showed the same van being used but again with different number plates, with the suspects wearing the same clothing.
Shcherbinskyy was eventually identified following extensive CCTV and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) enquiries.
Met detectives believed he staying in Romford and found the Sprinter van outside an address.
Eventually, detectives observed a meeting between Shcherbinskyy and Kiamuangana – the gunman – in a block of flats in Greenwich.
Police seized a CO2-powered firearm from Kiamuangana’s address. Live rounds of ammunition, the stolen van and numerous sets of number plates were found at Shcherbinskyy’s address.
Both men were convicted of two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery and three counts of possessing a firearm amongst other offences.
Kiamuangana pleaded guilty in June 2022 while Shcherbinskyy pleaded guilty following a short hearing in July 2023.
Dymtro Shcherbinskyy, of Romford was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment.
French national Ghislain Kiamuangana, 34 (28.07.89) of no fixed address was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in total.
It included a sentence for a theft where he stole £12,000 from a safe in a hotel he was working at in 2021.