A dad-of-two has described how masked thugs stormed his home armed with a hammer and a machete and threatened to kill his young children.
Two robbers held Dr Kailesh Solanki and his wife Michelle, 30, at knifepoint, and forced them to hand over £200,000 worth of cash, jewellery and handbags.
The horror unfolded as the couple’s son, aged ten months, and 21-month-old daughter slept upstairs.
The machete gang suspects at Dr Kailesh Solanki’s £1.6m home in Bowdon, Cheshire who ‘threatened to murder his babies if he didn’t give them his designer watches and jewellery’
Pictured: Dentist Kailesh Solanki and his 30-year-old wife Michelle with their two children
The attackers smashed their way in through a patio window Dr Solanki’s home in Bowdon, Greater Manchester.
The raiders then grabbed Dr Solanki, a dentist and owner of dental company Kissdental, and dragged him through the broken glass.
Dr Solanki, 38, said: ‘I was in the kitchen sterilising bottles for my youngest. We’d just got both of the children to sleep and my wife was upstairs. She heard the sensors going off and shouted me.
‘I ran up the stairs and that’s when we saw them on the CCTV. Two men wearing balaclavas – one had a hammer and the other a machete – and they were coming down the side of the property.’
Dr Solanki said CCTV had captured what they believe are the same two men outside the house several days earlier, but they fled after being disturbed by the security light.
Dr Solanki said: ‘We were sure it was the same men, but this time they had come earlier.
‘We rang the security company and the police, and they told us to try and scare them off by turning on the alarm.
‘I ran downstairs to try and turn it on and they saw me through the patio window.
‘I realised then that they wanted us to be in, they wanted one of us to be downstairs so they could take us hostage.
‘The next thing they smashed the patio windows and ran at me.
‘I froze. They grabbed me and dragged me through the broken glass which cut my feet, shouting at me to give them jewellery and taken off my watch, stuff like that.
‘They threatened me, saying do it or they’d kill the kids.
‘My wife was at the top of the stairs, begging them to leave the children alone. She took off her bracelet and threw it to them.
‘One of them went and grabbed her and dragged her down the stairs, she was petrified, shaking, they made her take off her rings and other jewellery.
‘I was trying to open the safe, I just wanted to give them what they wanted so they’d leave. I remember trying to find the key and one of them raised the hammer at me, as if to say ‘hurry up’.
‘Our only saving grace at that point was that we knew the police and security company were on their way.
‘We gave them everything we could – jewellery, watches, handbags, a bit of cash – they ordered us upstairs and they ran.’
Shortly afterwards, the security company arrived, and then the police, but the robbers were already long gone.
Dr Solanki said: ‘It was terrifying. They were only in the house for five or six minutes, but it felt like a lifetime.
‘You just think they could have done so much worse than they did.
‘Incredibly the kids slept through it, which we are thankful for.’
The family are now appealing for anyone who knows anything about the robbery to contact Greater Manchester Police.
Dr Solanki said: ‘I want to help catch them.
‘They threatened me and my wife, they threatened our children.
‘Just the thought of them being out there, they need to be stopped before they do this to someone else.’
A spokesman for GMP confirmed they were called shortly after 10pm on May 28 to a report of intruders at the property.
Det Sgt Sohail Ahmed said: ‘These offenders subjected an innocent family to a terrifying ordeal.
‘We are following a number of lines of enquiry and we are appealing for the public to help us catch these dangerous criminals.’
Two men broke into the couple’s (pictured) £1.6 million luxury property in Bowdon, Cheshire, last week
Dr Solanki, who owns several expensive sports cars, including a Ferrari, added: ‘I was brought up on a council estate and I went to a state school’
The robbers stole £200,000 worth of designer watches, handbags, sunglasses and jewellery, including Mrs Solanki’s diamond wedding and engagement rings.
Last night Dr Solanki told the Daily Mail: ‘They smashed through the patio windows and ran towards me. One had a machete, the other had a hammer and they were both dressed in black with balaclavas and gloves. I just froze. They took jewellery and a watch off me.’
Mrs Solanki said she was terrified they would harm the couple’s children, ten-month-old Dylan and 21-month-old Jasmine, who were asleep upstairs.
She said: ‘I just thought, ‘this is it’. That feeling will stay with me for life. When one of them said he’d kill the kids I said to him, ‘they are just babies’.
‘The man with the machete grabbed my hand and took my wedding and engagement rings and my watch. He wouldn’t let go of me.
‘At one point, one said, ‘leave her, she’s actually shaking’. I was numb. If they had told me to cut my arm off and my kids would be OK, I’d have done it.’
The raid happened just before 10pm on Bank Holiday Monday on May 28.
But the couple believe the thugs were also at the address at 11pm the previous Thursday.
They spotted two men on their CCTV cameras and switched on all the lights before calling police and their private security company. They arrived within minutes and the men left.
Dr Solanki, who runs Kissdental, a private dentistry business with clinics across the Manchester area, said he managed to dial 999 after hearing the thugs smash the patio doors, before he was ordered to open the family safe.
‘I didn’t know what was in there,’ he added. ‘I was just throwing it into a bag. You are just scared. They were very loud, right in our faces.’ The couple have since bought a German shepherd for protection.
Dr Solanki, who owns several expensive sports cars, including a Ferrari, added: ‘I was brought up on a council estate and I went to a state school.
‘I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
‘But I went to university and worked hard to make a success of my life. I work 70 to 80 hours a week and I like to enjoy some of the finer things in life.
‘Then you get people like this who are not willing to educate themselves and just want to take things by force. I don’t want to change who I am, but my view of life has altered.
‘I’m thinking, should I sell my cars, or stop buying nice watches, because I’m putting my family at risk.’
Detective Sergeant Sohail Ahmed, of Greater Manchester Police, said: ‘These offenders subjected an innocent family to a terrifying ordeal.
‘We are following a number of lines of enquiry and are appealing for the public to help us catch these dangerous criminals.’