17 January 2024, 11:13

By Fraser Knight

Within minutes of meeting Sergeant Dan Naylor at Charing Cross police station, there was a call on the radio to say a group of three people had snatched multiple phones on Oxford Street.

As an undercover cop, he and his team patrol the streets of Central London in their unmarked cars every day, at the times when they know robberies are most likely to happen.

This was a Tuesday night. It wasn’t long after 6pm. And straight away our driver, PC Gemel Pacquette, started to weave his way through the traffic towards Tottenham Court Road.

“They’re usually quite young lads - 16 to 20 years old - and they’ll come into the area and do a cluster of snatches,” Sergeant Naylor told me. “They can do up to 20 within an hour.”

“It’s almost like we would come into work, they’ll come into Central London to commit the crimes and go home - they won’t be here for long.”

The criminals who work these streets are alert.

They’re looking at people’s wrists, valuing their watches before they swoop in to steal them.

They know when the police are onto them, stealing several phones in short bursts and using electric bikes to speed off.

It all........

© LBC