HOW LUXURY CRIME PUT THE ONE PER CENT INA PARANOID SPIN

Rocked by a series of high-profile robberies, London's super-rich elite are turning their homes into fortresses - and they're too petrified to leave them.

- By Richard Godwin

In one sense, the rise of luxury crime in London feels inevitable. As the capital has reoriented itself around consumption and disparities in wealth have grown ever wider, the word luxury has become a kind of civic keyword — a mood, a lifestyle, a marketing prefix for everything from dogs to doughnuts, handbags to housing developments.

Now it has spawned a new category of fear. Not just crime — luxury crime. The kind that happens in Mayfair or Knightsbridge. The kind that knows the resale value of a Richard Mille watch (£120,000+) or Birkin handbag (as much as £250,000). The kind that inspires “lawless London” headlines and breathless social media commentary that “nobody's safe” — and certainly no one who can afford a Richard Mille watch.

Earlier this year, the former Formula 1 driver Jenson Button and his wife Brittny became high-profile victims of the luxury crimewave when their suitcase containing £250,000 of valuables was snatched within moments of their arrival at St Pancras from Paris. “I was kind of shocked,” said Brittny, who had the “a” stolen from her name in the same incident. “How unsecure everything felt. Just so many people, so chaotic. My husband and I really have no interest in going back to the UK.”

It's the latest in a string of thefts apparently targeted at high-net worth individuals. Recently, Hong Kong socialite Shafira Huang’s Primrose Hill mansion was burgled, with thieves making off with £150,000 worth of Hermès Crocodile Kelly handbags, £15,000 in cash and £10.4 million of bespoke jewellery.