College Students Accused Of Bilking California Jeweler

Two college students appeared in court Monday on charges of luring a California jeweler to London by posing as a member of Brunei’s royal family and stealing $2.9 million worth of gems, jewelry and watches.

A deputy magistrate rejected the students’ applications for bail and ordered them to remain in custody until Dec. 22.

Scotland Yard said the two students, along with a third student charged with handling the stolen goods, were arrested over the weekend.

The Daily Express had reported that a man telephoned Mohsen Vossough, a manager at the Beverly Hills, Calif., branch of New York-based Fashion World Inc., saying he was a relative of the billionaire Sultan of Brunei and wanted to buy a wedding present for one of the sultan’s sons.

The caller arranged to fly a man and woman from the jewelry firm to London on a private jet, the newspaper said.

Scotland Yard said the theft took place Nov. 28 outside a hotel in central London, where the jewelry firm’s representatives met with a man, who arrived with bodyguards in a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars.

Pakistani-born Khawar Zaman, 24, a business information technology student at Thames Valley University, and Manchester-born Omar Mohammed Ayub, 22, a business student at Bolton University, were charged with conspiring to steal $2.9 million worth of jewelry.