21st century Fagin: Thief distracts staff as boy accomplice steals phone
CAUGHT on camera, this is Britain’s modern-day ‘Fagin’ thief.
The mystery criminal distracts staff while a boy – aged just five or six – disappears behind the till and stuffs a smartphone down his trousers.
Police suspect the pair use their well-practised routine to commit crimes across London and the Home Counties.
They had been filmed performing the same trick at a charity shop almost a year ago, taking a phone and clothing.
The man, who is not thought to be the child’s father, has been compared to Fagin, the leader of a gang of child pickpockets in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
The latest theft took place at a candle shop in a shopping centre in Bromley, south-east London, last month.
CCTV footage released by police shows the man pretending to be interested in some products in order to distract the store manager.
As he leads the woman away from the counter, the boy ducks behind it, quickly checking the back office before taking her Samsung smartphone.
Gregory Hill, who owns The Candle Shop, said staff realised what had happened only when they saw the CCTV footage.
‘It’s unbelievable,’ he said. ‘It was my manager’s phone and she was pretty devastated. He doesn’t look any older than six.
‘You can see him coming in and looking in the office first. We were speechless.
‘She was busy helping the customer. She would not have noticed anything because he was so small. He puts the phone straight in his pants which makes you think it’s something they do all the time. They do not even look related. He deserves to rot to do that to a small kid. The principle of it is unbelievable.’
The theft took place 11 months after they are suspected to have struck at a Cancer Research charity shop in Wimbledon, south-west London.
According to sentencing guidelines, anyone using a child to help them steal could face up to seven years in prison.
The NSPCC said that, if the man had been forcing the child to help him steal, ‘it’s abusive and it’s completely unacceptable’. A spokesman added: ‘The young boy is unlikely to comprehend the serious nature of these actions.’