Inside Britains Moped Crime Gangs

[wc98]

considering one of the methods of nicking the scooters is ordering a takeaway is there no chance of setting up a sting ? i assume there are certain areas where this occurs regularly.

the alternative would be for the police to turn a blind eye on a few bike clubs/groups having an away day hunting scum in london. a bit like the russians taking paying customers pirate hunting

[baldy1926]

Angle underground has signs up asking the public not to use phones when out in the open as its so bad in the area.
Islington police are even less inclined to chase suspect as that was the station which had the officers suspended over the scum bag hicks.
You see mopeds which are cruising around on footpaths waiting for idiots to walk past headphones in, and totally oblivious to anything and everything.
The met has taken delivery of some adapted BMW bikes which are having a bit of success.
Apparently they were shown off at a bike show the other week.
There was also a deployment of some new type of stinger developed for use against mopeds and some dna tagging spray.

[pilotpaul]

One more scumbag off the streets for a while, his passenger (accomplice ?) was badly injured after crashing the scooter ....

http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-jailed-for-mope...

Plenty more where they came from.

Edited by pilotpaul on Thursday 22 February 19:31

[croyde]

Love the fact he starts a 5 year driving ban when he gets out. I suppose he'll be worried about his increased insurance premiums too.

[greygoose]

croyde said:

Love the fact he starts a 5 year driving ban when he gets out. I suppose he'll be worried about his increased insurance premiums too.

It does seem pointless, perhaps a ten year ban from the Internet would be better!

[pip t]

captain_cynic said:

The problem isn't "promising young footballers", the problem is a litigious society.

If a copper chases down a scrote and knocks someone over, that someone can now sue the police for £££ and plenty of shyster lawyers out there to maximise your compensation.

True, but at the same time the police do have to a bit careful what they're doing in pursuit of people.

Several years ago I was accidentally knocked to the floor by a policeman chasing someone accused of shoplifting. He came running round a corner full pelt and ran straight into me. Mr Shoplifter had missed me by a matter of inches. In the event, there was no real harm done save a few bruises and a grazed hand, but had I been the proverbial little old lady I may not have come off so lightly.

The police have to do their job and do their best to apprehend people, but they can't do it at the exclusion of all other consideration.

[amusingduck]

pip t said:

captain_cynic said:

The problem isn't "promising young footballers", the problem is a litigious society.

If a copper chases down a scrote and knocks someone over, that someone can now sue the police for £££ and plenty of shyster lawyers out there to maximise your compensation.

True, but at the same time the police do have to a bit careful what they're doing in pursuit of people.

Several years ago I was accidentally knocked to the floor by a policeman chasing someone accused of shoplifting. He came running round a corner full pelt and ran straight into me. Mr Shoplifter had missed me by a matter of inches. In the event, there was no real harm done save a few bruises and a grazed hand, but had I been the proverbial little old lady I may not have come off so lightly.

The police have to do their job and do their best to apprehend people, but they can't do it at the exclusion of all other consideration.

Obviously the police have to act reasonably, and I think it IS reasonable for them to chase a shoplifter.

Had he not been shoplifting, you would not have been knocked over. Why can't we charge them for the repercussions caused by police having to pursue them? The shoplifter in this case would have been charged with theft, and assault for causing you to be knocked over.

Makes sense to me.

[kowalski655]

Thats a good idea-make any person being chased by Police responsible for ANY harm done by ANY person(including the cops) so if a person gets run over by cops,its the criminal that gets charged with dangerous driving

Might make the punishment more severe(but dont count on it these days,unless the cops also insult someone over Twitter whilst chasing!) but I suspect most criminals wont give a toss! Might also encourage more reckless Police driving

As has been said, no easy solutions

[colonel c]

Perhaps it would help if there was a squad of police on unmarked mopeds.

[Boydie88]

pilotpaul said:

One more scumbag off the streets for a while, his passenger (accomplice ?) was badly injured after crashing the scooter ....

http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-jailed-for-mope...

Plenty more where they came from.

Edited by pilotpaul on Thursday 22 February 19:31

Don't like that the judge considers the fellow scumbag on the back of the scooter a 'victim'. Hopefully they get a similar sentence if they wake up.

[captain_cynic]

TVR Moneypit said:

There's been a few suggestions on how to effectively deal with this problem, followed by counter arguments to each idea.

There haven't been any suggestions on how to effectively deal with the problems... there have been suggestions to treat the symptoms which does nothing to solve the problem.

Ultimately, they're stealing to get money... So why not go after the money?

Ultimately the problem is that someone is buying these stolen goods. Get rid of the sellers of stolen goods, the knock on effect reduces the thefts as there's no money in it. Ultimately, unless you get to the cause of the problem and treat that, you're just covering it up.

There is a risk/reward calculation with any crime, people concentrate too much on increasing the risk without thinking about reducing the reward which is completely backwards because a thief rarely thinks of the risk, only the reward.

[anonymous-user]

Zoon said:

Problem is, if you have a gun then they will have one, doesn't solve anything.

I think a more severe problem is, if they shoot you they get a suspended sentence but if you shoot them you go down for life.

[Russian Troll Bot]

TVR Moneypit said:

4) The Prison system

Plenty of people seem to think that the prison regime is too soft. Although these are generally folk who have no experience of what life is really like inside. The worst thing about prison is being separated from your loved ones, your wife and kids in particular. All the other stuff, nice house, cars, clothes, watches etc, it's just stuff. If you had nowt on the outside, you're missing nowt on the inside. I can pretty much guarantee that 75% of these moped nobs have nothing more than materialistic trinkets in their lives, and certainly have nothing to do with their countless 'baby moms'. So for them , prison, even the biggest sthole Cat-B locals aren't going to be an effective deterant and they aren't going to be interested in any form of rehabilitation.

Personally, I'd advocate to two tier prison system, (pre Cat-D), based upon attitude and behaviour, both of which are constantly monitored in prison anyway. If you behave, show interest in rehabilitating, actively participate in sentence management courses and education, remain an 'enhanced' prisoner for a significant period of time etc, then you get moved onto better prisons where proper, worthwhile training courses are run in order to rehabilitate yourself.. If you're going to be the opposite, get moved to 1* gauls with brutal, hardcore regimes, where everyone is on basic, (no TVs, kettles etc) and plenty of 'bang-up'.

This is basically what happens at the moment though. If someone behaves they'll end up at a cat-D/open prison, those who are violent will end up in a cat A/B and go over tariff. The difficulty with prisons are many people leave wanting to change their lives, but find themselves unemployable and back with their old criminal friends, so fall right back into the cycle.

[turbomoped]

It's bloody obvious to me now. Ankle chains for all these young offenders. Minimum 1 year for first offence .Cant ride a proper bike and very difficulty to ride a scooter.
Cant run away either. Problem solved. No prison space wasted either.
I know you can cut through it but this then elevates you to a minimum 5 years inside.

[Pesty]

Russian Troll Bot said:

many people leave wanting to change their lives, but find themselves unemployable and back with their old criminal friends, so fall right back into the cycle.

If they wanted to change they would. If they wanted to work they would have worked not took the easy route.

[pc.iow]

soad said:

Rawwr said:

They're not losing though, are they? They're making a lot of money each week, not paying any tax, not having any risk of being caught or have anyone stopping them and still able to claim benefits. Prison? Hah! They'll never see it!

It won't last. Can't see them investing their ill gotten gains either, it'll get spent.

Then they'll go out and get more!

They run the prisons and run the streets. I said the same about ten years ago on these very pages.

There's no old bill on the streets anymore and the ones there are 'aint allowed to stop them 'by any means'.

Too easy to chose this life style sadly.

[Russian Troll Bot]

Pesty said:

Russian Troll Bot said:

many people leave wanting to change their lives, but find themselves unemployable and back with their old criminal friends, so fall right back into the cycle.

If they wanted to change they would. If they wanted to work they would have worked not took the easy route.

If you were an employer, would you pick someone who had been in jail for robbery or violence over someone who hadn't? I'm honestly not sure I would.

[Rude-boy]

captain_cynic said:

The best defence Londoners can do against these bar stewards is look up from their phones and pay attention to their surroundings.

The number one deterrent to the attention of scrotes (of any race, gender or nationality) IMO is not to look like a victim in the first place. Always be aware of your surroundings, always be alert for potential troublemakers and don't look like a 'little boy lost'. That doesn't mean swagger about like an arse, it means look and act confident and like you know where you are and what you are doing, even if it is only an act.

I have no idea if is the 'right' thing to do for all but i do know that i have only once ever had anyone try to mug me, and that didn't work out so well for the would be mugger.

[markcoznottz]

TVR Moneypit said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I've been following this thread and others like it with interest. Well, I say interest, more appalled horror really. What a sorry assed state of affairs. Regular Joe's going about there everyday life, minding their own business whilst moped 'gangs' get to rob and vandalise folks hard earned stuff with impunity. Or worse, like that bloke who got killed for his Rolex watch in London a few months back.

There's been a few suggestions on how to effectively deal with this problem, followed by counter arguments to each idea.

1) Allowing the police to pursue and to use force.

I have absolutely no problem with this and I doubt 90% of Joe Public would either. Yes, innocent pedestrian and other road user could end up being put at risk and yes, that isn't good, but more damage could be caused by an out of control car in a pursuit than an out of control moped. With that rationale, are the police now supposed to not pursue car drivers as well? Of course not. And if the moped rider is innocent, has nothing to hide, then they don't need to worry about getting stopped.

2) Police cuts

Yep, I know that Labour pretty much bankrupted the country, and are all set to do the same again when we next have a GE, but I firmly believe that numbers of regular beat bobbies and prison officers has been cut to ineffective levels. Couple this with red tape and human rights that make it difficult for these civil servants to effectively carry out their duties and it makes for a demoralising and stty situation for those still in the job. Employ more cops and screws, give them the support, backing and tools required to do their job, and it would help massively.

3) Sentencing

A previous poster suggested police setting up sting operations against these scumbags when they order a pizza just to rob the delivery driver of his moped. Ok, not a bad idea, but those 'aspiring footballers' would get maybe 3 years pre-discount, (33%), which would mean only 12 months inside, minus a bit for their Tag, (HDC), so they'd end up serving 8 months. Less if they'd been bailed on Tag awaiting Court. Sentencing for this sort of thing needs to be a lot, lot tougher. That would certainly help I believe, as it's one of the factors that has proved to be effective in dealing with football violence. Perhaps greater utilisation of Organised Crime legislation to combat this sort of thing would be a start?

4) The Prison system

Plenty of people seem to think that the prison regime is too soft. Although these are generally folk who have no experience of what life is really like inside. The worst thing about prison is being separated from your loved ones, your wife and kids in particular. All the other stuff, nice house, cars, clothes, watches etc, it's just stuff. If you had nowt on the outside, you're missing nowt on the inside. I can pretty much guarantee that 75% of these moped nobs have nothing more than materialistic trinkets in their lives, and certainly have nothing to do with their countless 'baby moms'. So for them , prison, even the biggest sthole Cat-B locals aren't going to be an effective deterant and they aren't going to be interested in any form of rehabilitation.

Personally, I'd advocate to two tier prison system, (pre Cat-D), based upon attitude and behaviour, both of which are constantly monitored in prison anyway. If you behave, show interest in rehabilitating, actively participate in sentence management courses and education, remain an 'enhanced' prisoner for a significant period of time etc, then you get moved onto better prisons where proper, worthwhile training courses are run in order to rehabilitate yourself.. If you're going to be the opposite, get moved to 1* gauls with brutal, hardcore regimes, where everyone is on basic, (no TVs, kettles etc) and plenty of 'bang-up'.

The problem is that most of the above would require a massive amount of investment in the police force and the MoJ, neither of which will ever happen, even if it was saving the Government money in the medium and long term.

Too many suspended sentences, too many short Ones. Eight months isn't life changing, 5 years is. A lot of liberals believe everyone in prison can be rehabilitated, a majority don't want to. Mess about on mopeds, smoke weed etc, have casual unprotected sex etc, or work full time in a factory for minimum wage. Hmmm.

[pilotpaul]

3 more scumbags sent down ...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/moped-thieve...

Plenty more where they came from.