La Voix reveals her surprising, accidental link to Britain’s biggest jewel heist worth £40,000,000

Strictly Come Dancing star La Voix was once accidentally embroiled in what was at the time the largest ever gem heist in Britain. 

In an interview that has resurfaced following the drag star’s appearance on the hit BBC dancing show, La Voix explained how, in 2009, while working as a theatrical makeup artist in Covent Garden, she was recruited to give two men an eyebrow-raising makeover.

“I was booked to do two men who wanted to be made to look older, and I was told it was for a music video,” she explained on the Little Did You Know podcast back in 2021.

“We started doing things you could do with latex and all the ageing makeup,” she added.

The two men, Aman Kassaye and Craig Calderwood, were described by La Voix as “a little bit standoffish” during their meeting.

Still, La Voix continued with the makeover as instructed, and spent four hours using liquid latex masks, skin-altering techniques and wigs to transform them into men who looked beyond their years.

After paying the now Drag Race UK finalist £450, the two men left, and headed to the Graff Diamonds store on London’s New Bond Street.

There, they pulled two handguns on the shop’s staff, and forced them to clear the cases of £40million worth of gems, including dozens of bracelets, necklaces and watches, before fleeing. They didn’t care to obscure themselves from CCTV as they were so well disguised.

After picking up a newspaper the following day, La Voix learnt of the crimes the men had committed after recognising them in a CCTV image.

Recalling how she felt, she told the podcast: “I thought, ‘That’s those two men that I did the make-up on yesterday!’”

The drag performer was interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives and had some of her makeup brushes, gowns, rubber masks and banknotes taken away to be tested for DNA.  

Kassaye and Calderwood were eventually apprehended after a mobile phone that had been wedged between the seats of one one of their abandoned getaway cars was discovered by police.

La Voix was instructed to give evidence in court, an experience which the singer and dancer described on the podcast as “very frightening”.

Both Kassaye and Calderwood and three of their accomplices were ultimately imprisoned for their roles in the gem heist.

La Voix is currently a contestant on the 23rd season of Strictly Come Dancing, and has proven to be a major hit with viewers – even if her scores from the judges have been mixed.

For most of the five weeks competed in so far, La Voix has landed in the middle of the leaderboard. During week four, she received a score of 14 out of 40, the worst week four score in the show’s history.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 1 November on BBC One at 6:35pm.

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