Fleet Street diamond thieves drilled into jeweller’s from bookies next door after slipping in through a fire escape

THE Fleet Street diamond robbers slipped into a bookies via a fire escape before drilling into a jeweller’s, it has emerged.

It is thought the gang first simply fished their hands through a letter box to press down on a fire door lever.

Once they had gained access to the stairwell inside, they smashed through a wall to get into the William Hill branch next door.

Incredibly they left the betting shop’s coffers untouched.

Then they drilled through the wall of neighbouring George Attenborough & Son to take up to £1million-worth of gems from display cases.

Both shops were shut when the gang struck last weekend.

A source said: “The door is a fire exit for the flats above so it is not alarmed.

“It is possible it was accessed by putting a hand through the letter box and pulling a lever down.

“The only door that had an alarm was the door to William Hill. But the robbers drilled a hole through the wall to get in there.

“Nothing was taken from the bookies, which is mystifying.”

There is a CCTV camera in the fire escape but it has been covered in white paint.

The Sun revealed yesterday how the robbery took place as thousands of runners in the London

Landmark Half Marathon passed by.

Many more people were at a nearby “cheer station”, which could have masked the drilling noise.

Police were alerted shortly before 2am on Monday.

The Met’s Flying Squad is investigating.

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