A woman who was accused of swindling a London jeweler by swapping $5.7 million in diamonds for pebbles has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.
Lulu Lakatos, 60, was convicted of stealing the gems from the Boodles jewelry store in the Mayfair district. In the March 2016 crime, she pretended to be valuing seven diamonds on behalf of a group of Russian buyers, The Associated Press reports. The store later found that she had surreptitiously replaced the diamonds with pebbles.
Lakatos and her co-conspirators fled to France after the swap.
Two men involved in the scheme have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal. They received prison sentences of three years, eight months.
Lakatos’s trial and sentencing were held at Southwark Crown Court in London.
Read more at The Associated Press