Marlborough’s Mayor, Councillor Guy Loosmore, went on BBC TV news at lunch time today (Tuesday) and declared his hope that his 18 carat gold chain of office, stolen from the Town Hall on Sunday would be recovered.
He agreed with the interviewer that the distinctiveness of thE historic chain might ensure that it was not melted down for its gold value or disposed of in some other way.
“I would hope so,” he said in an interview in front of the Town Hall. “The perpetrators this crime had their eye on the gold value of this chain. Yes it is very distinctive.
“The chain has 32 sections with 42 precious stones with the Marlborough crest embedded in the gold links. And the pendant itself also has the town crest and further precious jewels.”
“They date back to over 100 years ago. So they are very important to the town’s history and are part of the community’s assets.”
“There is a regular shock in the town about what’s happened. So we are hoping that perhaps the criminals themselves will recognise the historic value of this and hopefully we may recover it.”
He pointed out that the theft of the gold chain was “clearly a professional job,” the thieves entering the town hall through the basement and climbing up through the floor into the court room and then into the Mayor’s parlour.
“Obviously at this stage there are ongoing investigations in terms of what actually happened and we are waiting for some updates on that,” said the Mayor.
He added that the council was shortly to make a decision about the introduction of a deployable CCTV into the town, the council already having earmarked £20,000 to help pay for it.
“We can debate whether CCTV would have made any difference for many hours,” the Mayor pointed out. “It is an ongoing project.”
“Ironically, I was going around yesterday with one of the potential providers of CCTV in Marlborough because, as a council we are moving forward on this project and hope to make a decision in the fairly near future as to what we want to do.”
“And it is a decision that is being made by the council on behalf of what the community wants to see in the town. But at the end of the day the solution has to be fit for purpose and has to be usable if we do have crimes such as the ones [the armed raid on the jewellers Deacon & Sons] we have had.”
