Police on Thursday launched a series of dawn raids on an organised crime group suspected of stealing phones across Westminster.
Detectives arrested nine suspects as part of Operation Phone Snatcher, with more than 100 officers targeting eight addresses across north and east London this morning. The group is suspected of 180 thefts in Westminster over an eight-week period.
Territorial Support Group officers bashed in a door at a terraced house in the shadow of the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and arrested two teenage suspects. They were handcuffed and put in a police van. A number of phones were seized at the address and bagged up for evidence.
Officers also carried out synchronised raids at at seven other addresses.
Det Sgt Terry Moorton, who led the raid in Tottenham which the Standard attended, said: “These arrests are very significant as we believe this organised crime group is responsible for a high percentage of phone thefts in Westminster.”
He said the group had made hundreds of thousands of pounds stealing phones and selling them on mainly to pawn shops.
iPhones were the main targets for the gang who often used electric bikes to grab devices from unsuspecting tourists and commuters before speeding off. Those arrested on Thursday morning were males with ages ranging from teens to mid twenties.
Det Sgt Moorton added: “Our message is that we take all reports seriously. Because your phone has gone doesn’t mean we aren’t investigating the incident. These raids are examples of what we are doing.“
Figures published this week by the Office National Statistics showed a 24 per cent rise in knifepoint robberies in the year to the end of March to give a total of 9,272 such offences over the 12-month period. The total includes knife point muggings on wheels and was up by 1,818 offences compared with the previous year.
Other statistics presented by the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to the London Policing Board in March show that robbery overall has also increased, by 20 per cent, but that the success rate in detecting the culprits has fallen to just 5.7 per cent. That was down on the already low figure of 7.9 per cent recorded a year earlier and means that more than nine out of 10 muggings are going unsolved.
Scotland Yard previously said that despite such statistics, robbery and violent crime were a priority for the Met and intensive efforts were being made to tackle mobile muggers. Sir Mark has called on tech firms to help by introducing a “kill switch” on phones to disable them after a theft and remove the incentive for criminals to target them.
Christina Jessah, head of Westminster Police Basic Command Unit, said after the raids: “Phone theft is very personal and intrusive and affects people badly. We are going to be relentless in our pursuit.”
