Nearly 1,400 suspects have been arrested during a policing crackdown on London’s 20 most blighted town centres, including a shoplifter who raided the same Co-op store 15 times.
Dramatic body-worn footage shows the moment officers wrestle Steven Barrs to the ground and arrest him.
Barrs was caught on CCTV stealing wine, coffee, detergent and other items worth £624 from the branch in St Ann’s Road, Notting Hill, between March and May this year.
The 44-year-old thief, from Peabody Estate, Fulham, has been jailed for six months.
Another shoplifter, 33, held in the summer blitz is charged with 113 theft and burglary offences.
He allegedly took over £13,000 of goods from a Sainsbury’s in Low Hall, Walthamstow, and Morrisons on Salisbury Road, Chingford, and will appear in court in November.
Meanwhile, footage was released of an 18-year-old phone snatcher being detained by Metropolitan Police officers after a chase on their new fleet of high speed Sur-Ron e-bikes.
A stolen handset is seized from him outside Marks and Spencer in Tottenham Court Road on August 1.
The suspect, from Ilford, remains on bail while further enquiries are carried out.
.jpeg)
Stratford, Woolwich, Finsbury Park, Croydon, Shepherd’s Bush Green, Seven Sisters, Elephant and Castle and London’s West End are among high streets that have seen increased police activity over the summer.
Barking, Brixton, Camden Town, Catford, Ealing, Ilford, Kingston, Lewisham High Street, Romford, Shoreditch, Walthamstow and Whitechapel are some of the others.
Data showed they account for large amounts of shop theft, robbery, knife crime and anti-social behaviour.
Uniformed patrols and intelligence-led plain-clothed operations are deployed to snare the capital’s most prolific offenders.
Latest Met figures show 102,998 shoplifting offences were recorded in the year to July, an annual increase of 31.5 per cent.
The epidemic is estimated to cost London’s retailers £17.01 million every month.
Separately, masked raiders who stormed an O2 phone shop on Tottenham Court Road and made off with 100 iPhones and Apple Watches worth £100,000 were cornered minutes later in nearby Cranleigh Street on July 24.
The men - aged 18, 24 and 25 - entered the store wearing balaclavas at about 7.17pm.
Devices were recovered from a car stopped by officers, a large machete was also found and the suspects arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ben Russell, the Met’s lead for Safer Summer Streets, said: “Town centres across London continue to see an enhanced police presence this summer, building on reductions in theft, burglary, knife crime and robbery achieved so far this year, and more shoplifting cases solved.
“Despite the Met facing significant demand elsewhere in the capital - including festivals, concerts, sporting events and large protests - we are relentlessly focusing our resources on tackling the crimes that matter most to Londoners.
“Every day, we are targeting the prolific offenders who make the lives of others a misery.
“Through precise community crimefighting and intensified multi-agency action in 20 hotspots areas, offending is down and arrests are up.”
Between June 30 and August 10, there were 1,376 arrests in the 20 hotspot areas – up by a third compared to the same period last year. The number of crimes solved soared 176 per cent.
.jpeg)
Scotland Yard said it had seen double-digit reductions in neighbourhood crime, knife offences, burglary, theft from the person and personal robbery.
London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan added: “It’s incredibly encouraging to see the impact this campaign in London is already having.
“Neighbourhood policing not only builds stronger, more connected communities where everyone feels secure, but also increases the public’s confidence in the police.
“That’s why I’ll continue to prioritise neighbourhood policing and provide record funding for the Met to tackle the issues that matter most to Londoners, including shoplifting, theft and anti-social behaviour, as we build a safer London for everyone.”
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: “As part of our Plan for Change, we are boosting the number of neighbourhood police officers and delivering a summer blitz on town centre crime - sending a clear message to those who bring misery to our streets that their crimes will not go unpunished.”
Paul Gerrard, Co-op’s director of campaigns, public affairs and policy, said the firm had been “a relentless campaigner” against theft, adding: “We currently have 20 police partnerships nationwide, which continues to drive an increase in the number of offenders tackled, sentences handed down and rehabilitation orders than ever before.
“When retailers and police commit to working together and share intelligence, that’s good for shops but, importantly, also for the communities that rely on them.”
