Woman helped case art gallery before theft of £3.5m tiara

Kelly Duong and her ex-partner "masqueraded" as innocent day-trippers during the gang's surveillance of the gallery

A woman has been spared jail after she helped her ex-partner "case" a Nottinghamshire art gallery before the theft of a £3.5m tiara.

Kelly Duong was given a two-year jail sentence, suspended for 21 months.

She admitted conspiracy to burgle after she was seen filming alongside career criminal Ashley Cumberpatch and others at the Harley Gallery in the Welbeck Estate in Worksop in 2017.

One year later the tiara, worn to the coronation of Edward VII, was stolen.

The empty case where The Portland Tiara was once housed will be on display at the reopening of The Portland Collection

As Duong was sentenced, the judge accepted she was heavily influenced by Cumberpatch, who was jailed for 24 years in 2022 for his part in a string of raids, including one in which former England footballer Ashley Cole was tied up.

Duong, 35, was told she was seen filming alongside Cumberpatch and others at the Harley Gallery in 2017, a year before the theft of the tiara.

Passing sentence at Nottingham Crown Court, Judge James Sampson told Duong - who pleaded guilty on the basis she did not know which items would be taken - that she and Cumberpatch had "masqueraded" as innocent day-trippers during the gang's surveillance of the gallery.

The tiara was made for Winifred, Duchess of Portland, to wear at King Edward VII's coronation

He told Duong: "There was significant planning - the loss to the nation has been significant. The diamonds [from the tiara] will never be recovered."

The court heard Duong was on bail when she visited the gallery, having been arrested for possessing a shortened shotgun, related to a "willingness to do Cumberpatch's bidding."

She was later jailed for possessing the weapon, receiving an 18-month sentence in 2019.

Duong, formerly of an address in Nottingham's Arboretum area, said through her barrister that her relationship with Cumberpatch was now over.

The judge added there had been clear planning for the Harley Gallery break-in, but Duong had played a limited role.

A previous court hearing was told the 6th Duke of Portland commissioned Cartier to create the Portland Tiara for his wife Winifred, Duchess of Portland.

She wore the diamond-encrusted headpiece, which had the Portland Diamond as its centrepiece, to the coronation of King Edward, Queen Elizabeth II's great-grandfather, in 1902.