Mark Cavendish robbers told to repay stolen £750,000 or face extra prison time

Three men who robbed Sir Mark Cavendish at knifepoint at his home in November 2021 have been told that they must repay £750,000 within the next three months or each face an extra six years in jail.

Wearing balaclavas, Romario Henry, Ali Sesay and Jo Jobson broke into Cavendish’s house in Essex while he and his family were asleep before attacking Cavendish in his bedroom. Cavendish had a zombie knife held to his throat before the trio stole two high end Richard Mille watches, worth more than £700,000, as well as other items.

The three men were all jailed in November 2023. According to a BBC report, the gang of robbers have all now been told that they must repay £754,525 within the next three months or face extensions to their prison sentences, a judge at Chelmsford Crown Court said.

Two phones, worth £2,325, an empty safe and a £2,200 Louis Vuitton suitcase were also all stolen from Cavendish and family.

Speaking in a hearing in Chelmsford, Judge Alexander Mills said that the trio took "joint control" of the stolen property which meant that they then "obtained the benefit" from the violent incident that they had committed.

Henry previously claimed that the stolen watches had been sold, although Judge Mills said that the two items were "never located at the scene and have not been seen since" and that they would act as a "store of wealth".

Mills said that he believed the convicted trio had all benefited financially from the robbery and attack on Cavendish’s home.

Discussing the trio’s finances, Mills said that all three of the men could pay the £754,525 sum outlined in the hearing. It was revealed by Mills that Sesay owned a Mercedes car worth £1,000 and had £24,750 in cash, but Henry had no assets. Along with Sesay’s items, the BBC report states that Jobson was said to have an unspecified amount of cash in a bank account which was seized by authorities.

Mills also ordered £1,897 in compensation to be paid to Cavendish and £3,359 to his wife, as well as an unspecified amount to the company who are understood to have leased the watches to the couple.

Henry, 34, was previously told he must serve a prison term of 15 years while Sesay, 30, is now serving a 12 year term.

Jobson, who went on the run after the home invasion, was handed a 15 year jail sentence in a separate trial to the other members of the gang.

In a previous interview with The Telegraph, Cavendish said that he had regular flashbacks to the incident. After the trio were handed prison terms, Peta Cavendish said the crime had "turned a loving family home into a constant reminder of threat and fear".

"No family should ever have to go through what we went through," she said. "But no matter what the sentence was, any parent will understand, I'm sure, that no time in prison could make up for what they did to us that night."