LONDON: A brazen moped gang has been jailed for a string of bold “professional, planned and organised” high profile raids across London and a “shocking” attempted robbery where a mother was threatened with her three-year-old being snatched away from her. Among the “bold” crimes committed by the gang between July 2017 and June 2018 was the theft of BBC camera equipment filming the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race.
Judge Georgina Kent told the 12-strong gang, who were crowded into the dock at Kingston Crown Court: “Many offences were committed using motorbikes or mopeds, often stolen with false number plates. “Many offences offences were committed at night.”
She added: “The motorbike helmets and clothing, often all in black, were an effective disguise and created an intimidating appearance. The motorbikes provided a quick getaway. Many of these offences were committed in public view because you were confident you could get away with it.”
In what the judge described as an “exceptionally serious and shocking attempted robbery” which had “a degree of planning”, four gang members were caught on CCTV targeting a woman with a young child in broad daylight in Sandpits Road in Richmond.
Pheobe Ruele was walking hand-in-hand with her son whom she had just picked up from nursery when two motorcycles road past, pulled into the road and waited for her on June 21 last year.
The court heard that John McFadyen, 24, grabbed her arm hard enough to leave finger-mark bruises and told her: “Give me your rings. I’m going to hurt your child and take him away.”
Footage shows the “terrified” woman can be seen dragging her child into the road before builders chase the gang away, brandishing scaffolding poles.
The judge noted that “fortunately there were no cars in the vicinity at that moment” but added that Ms Ruele is now “afraid for her children’s safety when she takes them to and from school”.
The judge said she had “no doubt” this offence “would have struck fear into any parent who heard about it”. The judge added: “A mother and her three-year-old son are extremely vulnerable. The threats that were made were calculated to exploit that vulnerability.
“To threaten a mother with violence towards a very young child and threaten to take the child away is a most effective and distressing threat.”
The footage went viral after being circulated on social media by Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, who asked the public to “call 101 or 999 if u know these scumbags”.
Taking the gang off the streets has helped cut moped-enabled crime in the capital by 52 per cent in the space of a year, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The defendants, who are aged between 19 and 36, also used their mopeds to block traffic before taking an angle grinder to cameras rigged up to capture the boat race on March 22 last year.
The gang, who were all linked to ringleader Terry Marsh, 32, were sentenced for offences including conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to burgle, conspiracy to steal, criminal damage and handling stolen goods.
Three gang members — Omar Tafat, 22, Josh Myers, 19, and Kian Taylor, 20 — were arrested on May 7 last year following a high-speed police chase. It lasted more than 90 minutes and spanned 10 London boroughs, with all three piled onto the same bike.
The gang first came to police attention on December 31 2017 when they carried out a ram-raid on high-end outdoor clothing company Altimus Ltd in High Street Kensington using a stolen Range Rover and several mopeds.