A prolific mugger riding a high speed e-bike who snatched mobile phones from 24 people in a day-long crime spree across central London has been brought to justice after being tracked by police on CCTV and arrested as he tried to escape.
Sonny Stringer, 28, from Islington, had already stolen phones from victims on Baker Street, Edgware Road, Cromwell Place, Grosvenor Place, Regent Street, Orange Street, Victoria Road, and Piccadilly in a period of just over 24 hours, when police were called about another theft he had just carried out on Blackfriars Bridge.
Stringer and an unknown accomplice were soon spotted on CCTV riding off on their Sur-Run electric bikes, reaching speeds of nearly 50 mph.
Stringer was about to mount the pavement in the direction of a family with a buggy when officers made “tactical contact” with the rear wheel of his bike and knocked him off.
He attempted to run off, but stopped when threatened with a Taser. A bag that he threw away as he was detained was found to contain 22 phones. Another two that he had dropped when knocked off were also recovered.
He was said to have broken his kneecap in the incident. His accomplice fled and is still being hunted.
Stringer has now pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to ten counts of theft covering the 24 phones, as well as dangerous driving and driving without insurance.
The offences cover a period of just over 24 hours beginning with the mugging on Baker Street at 10.15am on 26 March and ending with the Blackfriars Bridge mugging at 11.15am the following day.
Stringer will be sentenced in August.
City of London Chief Superintendent Rob Atkin said: “The successful capture and prosecution of a prolific phone snatcher shows City of London Police’s focus on detecting and bringing to justice those who steal from people on our streets,” he said.
“This was a team effort from our control team following the criminals on CCTV and communicating with officers on the ground, to response officers making risk-critical decisions to protect the public and effect an arrest.
“Phone snatching has a significant impact on victims and our key priority has been to reduce the number of phones stolen and relentlessly target those criminals responsible.”
Lyn Newins, from the City of London Police control room, said she had taken the call reporting the Blackfriars Bridge mugging that led to Stringer’s arrest and described how the successful attempt to track him down had taken place once her colleague spotted him on the force’s CCTV cameras.
“I took a call from a member of the public who had witnessed a phone snatching on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge,” she said.
“My colleague Damon said he had the suspects on our cameras. I quickly started relaying information to officers on the ground. In the control room we can manage the position of the cameras ourselves which is very useful and speeds up our ability to track criminals.
“We spun the cameras around on Cheapside and updated officers on the phone snatchers’ path. I remember saying that they were ‘going like the clappers’ and could see members of the public having to avoid being hit by them.
“When we saw that officers had apprehended one of the suspects it was a huge sense of achievement for all those involved. Working in control you sometimes don’t hear about the success stories as they tend to happen later, so to be a part of it and see that they recovered so many phones was a big win.
“I sadly speak to lots of victims of phone snatchers and the loss of their phone is devastating to them. People have their worlds on their phones and it isn’t a minor crime to them. I spoke to one of the victims who called to say we had their phone. It was nice to know that we played a role in getting it back to them.”
