Cycle crime spike shows thieves commit 30 crimes a day in summer surge, figures reveal

Thieves on bicycles were committing more than 30 crimes a day in London at the height of a surge in offences this summer, new figures reveal.

They carried out a total of 910 offences in June, including 166 muggings and 618 snatches or thefts — the highest monthly total in three years.

The spike in cycle crime this summer came as the Met recorded a reduction in the number of offences involving mopeds and scooters.

One senior detective said there was evidence that some criminals were switching to cycles to avoid new police tactics targeting moped thugs .

The data shows there was a total of 6,900 offences involving suspects riding bicycles in 2017 compared with 4,379 crimes in 2015, a rise of nearly 60 per cent. Latest figures from the Met show cycle crimes continuing to rise this year, although at a lower rate.

There was a marked increase in the number of thefts, which has risen from 3,226 in 2015 to 4,693 offences last year. The number of robberies on bikes more than doubled over the same period with 586 offences in 2015 and 1,185 in 2017.

Figures also show that while the number of offences was rising, there was a significant fall in the number of crimes being solved.

Overall, less than three per cent of all offenders using bikes were caught in the eight months to last August, compared with more than four per cent in 2016. In cases of theft — usually phone snatches from pedestrians which are more difficult to solve — police solved just 26 out of 3,095 cases over the same period.

Keith Prince, a Tory member of the London Assembly, who obtained the figures, said: “While the number of cycle-enabled crimes has rocketed, the proportion of offenders being caught is consistently falling.

"This is deeply damaging — criminals know that there is a dwindling possibility that they will be brought to justice, meaning that they have an incentive to offend over and over again.”

Detective Superintendent Lee Hill said: “We have in place policing tactics and are proactively targeting through daily operations those who use any stolen two-wheeled vehicle to commit crime, including pedal cycles.”

Day bike thugs took tv crew’s £15k camera

Crime by bicycle robbers in London came to global attention when masked raiders forced an Australian TV crew to hand over a £15,000 camera as they recorded a news item in June on the Grenfell fire.

Reporter Laurel Irving and cameraman Jimmy Cannon were at Islington’s Exmouth Market working for Channel 7’s Sunrise show when they were approached by two men in balaclavas.

One threatened Mr Cannon with a gun in his jacket, forcing him to hand over his camera. Ms Irving tried to wrestle it back before Mr Cannon convinced her to let go and the robbers, above, rode off.

Ms Irving said: “We weren’t scared, just annoyed. I just grabbed the camera and Jimmy said ‘He’s got a gun’, so I said ‘Show me the gun’, and it was at that point I realised that I was being silly and it was dangerous so I let go.”

There have been no arrests.