Celebrity antiques dealer's fury as masked robbers raid store and beat him with hammer

Ian Towning, a regular face on Dickinson’s Real Deal and Posh Pawn, expressed his anger after James Dixon and Thomas Loring were convicted of a string of violent robberies and burglaries

A celebrity jewellery and antiques dealer - often seen on TV - has branded two thugs who raided his store and attacked him with a hammer as "vicious and evil".

Ian Towning and his security guard Mark Simmons were brutally attacked as masked robbers James Dixon and Thomas Loring cleared the shop of £120,000 worth of jewellery. Mr Towning, a regular face on Dickinson’s Real Deal and Posh Pawn, said he has felt vulnerable in the eight months since the ordeal, which happened at his antiques shop in Chelsea, west London.

"It's really screwed me up. I haven’t slept well since, and I'm just nervous all the time. And even in my own garden, I feel vulnerable. I rarely dare walk down the street now, and if I do I don’t like anyone being behind me, and at a restaurant I sit with my back to the wall because I don’t trust anyone anymore, " the antiques dealer said.

Dixon, 42, and Loring, 41, have been convicted of a string of violent robberies and burglaries - along with the one on Mr Towning's store - that they committed in and around London earlier this year. The pair, who have been on remand since they were arrested, will be sentenced in the new year.

Flying Squad officers, who snared the offenders, after putting them under surveillance, described Dixon as being like "a loaded gun walking around ready to go off at any time". They spoke on Tuesday after the yobs had appeared at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court.

Detective Constable Tom Lockwood, of the Metropolitan Police, added: "Dixon is just ready to go at any moment and unleash whatever violence he needs to. He’s a violent robber who’s out to take money as quickly as possible and he doesn’t care about the consequences."

Dixon, from Pimlico, City of Westminster, had only been out of prison for seven months before he committed his first violent crime and did so while on licence, a term that had been extended by five years because he had punched a prison governor in the face when a parole hearing hadn’t gone his way, reports Mail Online.

Detective Chief Inspector Laura Hillier, of the Flying Squad at Met Police, said: "We are going to talk to the judge ahead of sentencing about Dixon’s dangerousness so that when he is eventually released there will be enhanced probation and licensing aspects because it’s really important to show his past history of offending and the impact it’s had on his victims and the community as a whole."

Mr Towning and Mr Simmons were both hit on the head with a hammer and repeatedly attacked by Dixon, who police say has been offending since he was a teenager. Loring wielded a sledgehammer in the raid on March 26.

The Flying Squad used intelligence to link the pair with the attack and, when they had arrested them, the duo had just made off with £8,745 in cash from a violent attack on a post office worker on the Old Kent Road, southeast London. Dixon then spent more than £2,500 cash at Lacoste and Hugo Boss on London’s Regent Street before, the detectives said, phoning up one of his three girlfriends to pick him up.

"He’s an extraordinarily brazen criminal," said Det Con Lockwood. "One minute he’s smashing victims around, kicking them and barging them over and inflicting injuries. The next he’s spending the spoils of his crime without any remorse, even using telephones within those stores to phone up people he knows."

Following his arrest, Dixon pleaded guilty to multiple offences connected to various robberies, an attempted robbery and burglaries. Loring, from Mottingham, southeast London, pleaded not guilty to robbery offences but was convicted in court.