Beckenham chef and Welling shoplifter among south Londoners jailed in June so far

A Beckenham chef, a Welling shoplifter and an Orpington man who tried to ship drugs to Australia are among the south Londoners who have been locked up in June.

A man from Woolwich who assaulted a woman and a Brixton woman who helped to import MDMA were also put behind bars.

Here are the names and faces of the men and women who are have been sentenced to prison time this month.

Arkadiusz Rachwal

Arkadiusz Rachwal (Image: Met Police) Chef Arkadiusz Rachwal, 39, of Primrose Road in Beckenham, armed himself with bread and steak knives to attack a man then threatened that he would get his friends to kill him after the victim reported the attack to police.

Rachwal fell asleep after an evening of drinking at a friend’s flat in Beckenham on January 4.

When his friend woke him in the morning Rachwal became irrationally angry, arming himself an eight-inch bread knife in one hand and a five-inch steak knife in the other as he attacked the victim.

Rachwal was later arrested and pleaded guilty to assault before being released on bail.

But he then turned up at the victim's house and told him: “If you don’t open the door I’m going to break it down. If I go to prison it doesn’t matter, I have lots of Polish friends who I have given your address to. You should watch your back because they are going to kill you.”

Police attended and Rachwal kicked a police officer during his arrest.

Rachwal was jailed for four years.

Read the full story - Beckenham chef armed with knives in each hand attacked 'friend' who woke him up

David Johnson and Caprice Thompson

David Johnson and Caprice Thompson (Image: Met Police) Caprice Thompson, 46, of Hayter Road in Brixton, tried to bring around £400,000 worth of MDMA into the country.

Thompson entered the UK in Portsmouth after arriving on a ferry from France with 15 kilos of the drug.

Corrupt border force officer Kevin Smith, from Portsmouth, allowed Thompson through.

However, she was pulled over by Met Police officers on her way back to Brixton and the drugs were found in her boot.

Thompson was working for a crime group led by David Johnson, 51, of Reed Place in Clapham.

Thompson was jailed for seven years, Johnson was jailed for 12 years and Smith was jailed for two years.

Read the full story - Corrupt border officer helped south London woman import £400k of MDMA

Yvonne Stewart and Robert Hamilton

Yvonne Stewart and Robert Hamilton (Image: NCA) Robert Hamilton, 53, from Orpington, was involved in a plot to send £4.3 million worth of crystal meth to Australia.

Hamilton worked together with Yvonne Stewart, 55, from Croydon, and Kevin Filkins, 54, from Sevenoaks, from London to New South Wales.

An investigation was launched after 24 kilograms of crystal meth was seized by Australia’s Border Force upon arrival from the UK.

It was established that the drugs had been sent from Croydon on June 25, 2021, with CCTV images identifying Stewart, who was a corrupt insider, carrying out the security inspection of the package.

CCTV images also captured Filkins sending the drug shipment, which was labelled ‘two glass Buddhas’.

The package did not contain anything except unconcealed crystal meth.

Phone records showed that Hamilton had acted as the middleman between Filkins and Stewart.

The trio had sent two other shipments to Australia in June, and the named senders on each were individuals who had their passports stolen.

One of the stolen passports was recovered in a search of Filkins’ home.

Filkins and Stewart were each jailed for 12 years, while Hamilton was sentenced to 12 years and six months.

Read the full story - Orpington man and Croydon woman sent £4.3m of crystal meth to Australia

Nigel Prescod

Nigel Prescod (Image: Met Police) Nigel Moore Prescod, 44, of Gordon Avenue in Hornchurch, was jailed for assaulting a woman in Woolwich and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The offences took place against a woman in Woolwich in March and April this year, court documents state.

Prescod “did a series of acts namely send the victim money, threaten her with violence and attempt to take her away from London”, according to court documents.

Prescod was jailed for two years and three months.

Read the full story - Man assaulted woman in Woolwich then offered her money and threatened her

John Piro

John Piro (Image: Met Police)

John Piro, 48, of Anstridge Road in Greenwich, stole from Co-op in Welling.

Two alleged shoplifters were arrested after they were seen leaving a Co-Op store with stolen goods.

Both people were subsequently charged with one remanded and the other awaiting a court date.

Piro subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four weeks in prison.