The 22-year-old alleged girlfriend of an upmarket jeweller has been accused of spiriting away luxury watches and other jewellery worth about R40m in an audacious series of heists to hide them from liquidators for her boss.

The Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday heard how staff at the Umhlanga branch of Arthur Kaplan jewellers were allegedly ‘deceived’ by employee Ammaarah Ismail into handing over stock worth millions of rands at a BP service station in Verulam after telling them a robbery was imminent.

The Sunday Times reports Ismail is also accused of deceiving an employee at the company’s Eastgate store into believing she had been authorised to remove high-value jewellery and watches.

More stock was taken in a similar way from the company’s stores in Nelson Mandela Square and Sandton City, according to court documents.

A substantial inventory of missing items, supplied by liquidators, includes diamond tennis bracelets, rings, necklaces and luxury watches including Tissot, Longines, Tag Heuer and Seiko brands.

Tensions over the alleged heists came to a head when Arthur Kaplan director Hoosein Mohamed was arrested on 1 June after allegedly assaulting and pulling a gun on the liquidator Laila Motala, daughter of liquidator Enver Motala. 

Mohamed is in custody pending a ruling next week on his bail application after Friday’s marathon hearing.

Motala’s affidavit opposing bail, which was read out in court, said that Ismail is Mohamed’s ‘personal assistant and girlfriend’ and was working with him to retrieve the jewellery before it could be sold to pay creditors.

Full Sunday Times report