'Cash or you die': armed raiders pistol whip man and tie up him and wife in robbery

 
Robbed: Elliot Smith, centre, with presenters Melinda Messenger and Dominic Littlewood on an episode of Channel 5’s Cowboy Builders
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A landscape gardener spoke today of how armed robbers held a gun to his head at his home and said: “You have five seconds or we kill you.”

Elliot Smith was asleep in bed with his wife Izabela when thugs armed with a gun and a knife broke through their bedroom door.

They pistol-whipped Mr Smith, 42, when he tried to resist and then dragged him around the house shouting: “Where is the safe? Give us the money, give us the drugs.”

The robbers used a crowbar to smash through the front door of the couple’s rented home in Carshalton at 1am on Saturday.

“The first thing I knew was that they were standing in our bedroom,” Mr Smith told the Standard. “They were black guys wearing bandanas and hoodies — they were terrifying.

“We have two big labradors but these guys just did not seem to care and carried on even though they were barking. They dragged me from room to room demanding to know where the safe is but we don’t even have a safe.

“They smashed a crowbar into my legs and stabbed me in the wrist as I continually told them I did not know what they were talking about.

“The crazy one put the pistol to my temple and said, ‘You have five seconds to tell me where the safe is or I am going to kill you.’

“At that point I thought that was my last day on earth. I thought I was going to die. In the end maybe they realized they had got the wrong man and were trying to find a drug dealer.

“They thought I was a scaffolder but I told them I was a gardener — it must have been mistaken identity.”

Leafy: the suburban street in Carshalton where the raid took place Picture: Google Street View

Mrs Smith, a carer, 32, was locked in the bedroom throughout the ordeal. In the end the couple were tied up as the thugs made their escape after grabbing cash, car keys and house keys.

Mr Smith added: “They did not tie us up that well so I managed to get free and raise the alarm. I was in hospital for five hours but am lucky to be alive. When the gun was at my head I thought that was it. Izabela is distraught and very emotional. She does not want to go back to the house where we have lived for three years. It was a horrific experience but at least we are alive.”

Mr Smith once featured in an episode of Channel 5 show Cowboy Builders when he came to the rescue of a family who had been fleeced of £23,000 by rogue builders.

The conmen had wrecked the garden of a family in Worcester Park, but Mr Smith’s company Dreaming Green stepped in to repair the damage.

Police said they were investigating the possibility the couple were targeted for their business takings.

Detective Chief Inspector Jane Corrigan, who is leading the inquiry, said: “This was an absolutely vicious attack on a couple in their home. We believe that they may have been specifically targeted because the gentleman’s business premises were burgled on August 28 and the motive may have been financial.

“The level of violence used was totally disproportionate and we are appealing to the public to contact us if they saw anything suspicious on the day of the attack or saw two black men leaving the address towards Boundary Road.”

One of the suspects was 5ft 9in, wore a black bomber jacket and spoke with a London accent. The second was 6ft and wearing a black hoodie.

Anyone with information can call Sutton Police on 020 8649 0735 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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