Did these males ‘fuel’ Grimshaw? CCTV reveals gang prowling Ibiza villa

A gang of burglars in Ibiza, who used a sedative gas to rob the holiday homes of high-net-worth individuals as they slept – including presenter Nick Grimshaw and his 81-year-old mother – can be seen in CCTV pictures obtained by MailOnline.

The exclusive images were taken as the men carried out a raid around the time the former BBC Radio 1 host was targeted in his luxury villa earlier this month.

Security cameras captured two men, wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, as they prowled the grounds of a villa in the centre of the Spanish holiday island.

A source with knowledge of the raid said the burglars used an unknown type of gas to sedate the sleeping occupants of the villa.

The source said: ‘They were on the property for an hour and were able to make a thorough search for any valuables in the middle of the night.

‘These guys were not in a rush and knew that they had all the time in the world because they had knocked everyone out.

‘They were quite brazen. They even ripped a safe off the wall, which must have made quite a noise. Then they calmly emptied the contents out in the garden.

‘The people renting the villa only found out what had happened when they woke up in the morning to discover their jewellery was missing.

‘There is a strong possibility that these men were also the ones who robbed Nick Grimshaw and his mother. They certainly knew what they were doing.’

The former X Factor judge was burgled in a nighttime raid while on his second trip to Ibiza this year to celebrate his 40th birthday on August 14.

He was in a villa with his mother, Eileen, his dancer fiancé, Meshach Henry, 27, and his niece, Liv Grimshaw, who appears with him on Celebrity Gogglebox.

The presenter and his loved ones were said to be unhurt, but lost some valuables, and have since returned home.

Sources have suggested they were targeted by a gang who have used a sedative gas pumped through air conditioning to render victims unconscious.

The raids by the gang, and others targeting tourists, have tarnished Ibiza’s reputation for spectacular scenery, world-class partying, laid-back luxury and hippie-chic. 

Marcus, the security director of the Diplomatic Protection Group, which provides security and close protection on the island, confirmed that the suspected use of gas by Italian and Albanian gangs had become more widespread.

He said: ‘They use air conditioning units to pump gas into a villa while people are sleeping.

‘The most professional ones are the Italians who focus on high-end villas. They are highly intelligent, slick and professional operators.

‘They used to rob people in the street of their expensive watches or designer bags, but before Covid there was a few have-a-go heroes who started fighting back.

‘That led to them targeting villas instead, sometimes following people back to their accommodation if they see them flashing expensive watches or jewellery in public.

‘Using gas is a safeguard because it avoids aggression and the risk of anyone waking up. The Italians like to be non-confrontational if they can, and the gas is an insurance that there will be no violence.’

But Marcus insisted that the majority of burglaries in Ibiza were carried out on empty villas when occupants were at beach clubs, restaurants or nightclubs.

He added: ‘People let their guard down on holiday, and can leave windows open or even doors unlocked when they go out.

‘Even if villas are locked up, burglars can easily break in. Expensive alarm systems might not even be much of a deterrent.

‘The gangs know that security companies monitoring alarms can take an average of 45 minutes to one hour to respond in the summer, because many villas are so secluded – but burglars can be in and out within six minutes.’

Marcus said gangs used nitrous oxide or another type of anaesthetic gas to sedate people, with apparently only small quantities needed to put victims into a deep sleep.

He said: ‘Air conditioning systems are a ready method of getting the gas into a villa.

‘Many villas now have their air conditioning base units in their grounds and maybe 30m away from the property, so the air can be ducted in from underground.

‘It means gangs don’t even have to climb on a roof to get access to a unit.

‘They know how much gas to release with the air conditioning doing the work for them and circulating it around a villa.

‘The burglars just sit back and wait 30 minutes or so for the gas to do its job, and put people into a deeper sleep.

‘By then all the air in the house, including the gas, will have circulated and been replaced with fresh air so they know it is safe to go in.

‘It is ridiculous to suggest that they wear hamzat suits or breathing apparatus to avoid inhaling any gas themselves.

‘I have never heard of that happening. It is unnecessary because any gas would have already been sucked out by the air conditioning.

‘The burglars will not leave behind any physical evidence that gas has been used, but people will wake up with thick heads.

‘I have been told that the symptoms are very similar to a hangover, which might not be unusual for people on holiday.

‘Villa owners need to be aware that they should fence off air conditioning base stations if they have them in gardens to avoid them being accessed.

‘While the gangs doing this at the moment know what they are doing, there is always the danger that other street level criminals will want a piece of the action and try to copy them.’

Marcus said he first heard of the suspected use of gas by burglars in Ibiza in around 2005, when he was called to assist a British aristocratic family who had been targeted by the technique.

He said the family had woken up feeling ‘groggy’ in the morning before discovering that valuables had been taken during the night.

‘The mother was totally freaked out to think that burglars had been in the bedrooms while she and her children were sleeping,’ he said.

Marcus said gangs were easily able to work out the locations of Ibiza’s most expensive villas which can be rented out for up to £100,000 a week in the summer.

But he said that gang members often infiltrated VIP areas of the island’s most exclusive nightclubs to spot people wearing expensive watches or flashing money.

Details of wealthy revellers are then passed to others outside who can discreetly follow them back to their villas, and later carry out burglaries.

Describing Ibiza as ‘a small island with big city crime levels’, he said: ‘The gangs know that someone with a nice watch can often have two or three at their accommodation.

‘Wealthy women are also likely to have designer handbags which might be worth £35,000, and perhaps some Gucci dresses worth £3,000 or so.’

Marcus said burglars increasingly using modern technology to help them find targets and carry out raids.

The techniques include attaching Apple air tags to luxury cars, so that they can be remotely tracked back to villas.

Marcus said: ‘That way, they don’t even have to follow the people with money to find out where they are staying.’

Gangs also sometimes use electronic signal blockers to make alarm sensors ineffective when they approach a property.

Others have vibrating lockpick gadgets, which can be purchased on the internet to get through locked doors.

Marcus said he blamed much of Ibiza’s crimewave on the island’s ever growing concierge industry of middlemen who book villas, chefs, domestic and security staff, transport and VIP tables at nightclubs for clients.

He said that many concierges cut corners to minimise costs by hiring poorly paid staff to maximise their own commission and profits.

Marcus claimed that the practice led to some staff being tempted to help gangs by leaving windows insecure or providing tip-offs about wealthy clients in return for kickback payments.

Police in Ibiza have not confirmed the suspected use of gassing during burglaries, and have pointed in the past to the island having lower crime rates than other areas of Spain.

But while overall crime rates on the island have not increased over the last five years, there has been a surge in burglaries of villas where items of huge value have been stolen.

Grimshaw had posted an image of himself on Instagram, smiling as he relaxed outside his villa on his 40th birthday with a caption saying: ‘Waking up 40’. He had deleted the post, but has since put it up again. 

A source close to the presenter said he believed the gang who raided his villa were not targeting him personally but would have known the property was used by wealthy guests.

The villa which Grimshaw was renting for his holiday has not been revealed, but he is a regular visitor to Ibiza.

In 2022, he and his fiancé Mesh were in a luxurious villa called Casa Bayona which can be rented for £15,000 a week.

He also posted a series of photos on Instagram from a trip to Ibiza in July this year where he was seen partying and posing with friends, seemingly keen to avoid the Euros.

Grimshaw captioned the post: ‘If football’s coming home maybe no one will notice if I just….. stay here.’

The presenter replaced Chris Moyles as host of the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show in 2012 and took over from Louis Walsh as a judge on TV talent show The X Factor for one series in 2015.

He has since appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox with niece Liv, who works for online fashion brand PrettyLittleThing, as well as the Stand Up to Cancer comedy specials and Channel 4’s The Great Home Transformation.

Former F1 driver Jenson Button and his ex-wife Jessica Michibata claimed they were gassed as they slept during a raid on their French villa in 2015.

The pair were with friends in St Tropez when thieves broke in and stole valuables worth €350,000 including Mrs Button’s engagement ring. It was claimed that they may have been knocked out by gas pumped into the house through air conditioning units.

Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond said he, his wife Mindy and his teenage daughter were also gassed in a burglary as they slept during a trip to St Tropez in 2018.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists has warned that such stories may be inaccurate, with experts saying that robbers would need ‘a truckload of gas’ that would be ‘phenomenally expensive’ and easy to detect by its smell.