POLICE AIM TO DELIVER JUSTICE
COPS are posing as takeaway delivery men to catch moped gangs.
The Metropolitan Police is testing out the tactic to cut the shocking number of robberies and violent crime against delivery riders.
By pretending to transport takeaways on the back of a moped, officers hope to lure yobs into an attack and catch them red-handed.
In the capital, recently dubbed “Lawless London”, 23,000 crimes on motorbikes were reported last year compared to 900 five years earlier. Now the fear of assault from hammerwielding thugs has made drivers refuse to drop off in certain areas.
On Friday, two teens were arrested on suspicion of robbery which left a 24-year-old woman critical in hospital after she was punched for her bag in Edgware, north London.
It is not just London which has been hit by a wave in motorbike crime, 83 incidents were also reported in Birmingham last year and takeaway giants Deliveroo and Uber Eats are working closely with the Home Office.
But a spokesman from the Met said: “We cannot confirm or deny the existence of such an operation or tactic.”
In May, the Met recorded the lowest monthly figure of moped crime since January 2017.
Nick Hurd, the minister for policing, said: “The police are working hard to tackle moped crime.”