Brutal Britain 2017

Hammer gang mug victims in broad daylight

ONE of them menacingly raises a hammer in his gloved hand, while the other drives his moped straight at helpless pedestrians.

But this pair of marauding thieves were not on the lawless streets of some far-away city – they were bringing fear to the heart of London.

There were four thugs on two mopeds, circling for victims with bags and phones to steal outside the BBC’s headquarters, just off Oxford Street.

Each pillion passenger was armed – one with a hammer, the second with a crowbar – and waved their weapons to deter anyone from tackling them.

At least one iPhone was stolen from a woman in her forties when it was snatched out of her hand.

Photographer Alex Lentati said he was almost knocked over by one of the mopeds.

‘At first I thought it was just bad driving, but then he mounted the pavement and started coming at me at fairly high speed,’ he told the Evening Standard. ‘As the bike got closer it rode at me on the pavement, then whizzed past on the inside next to the wall.

‘The audacity of it was that another one turned up and then they went round the block and came back again tearing down Great Portland Street. When they came round the second time one of them brandished the hammer.’

The BBC has sent memos to staff warning them to be vigilant and keep valuables out of sight.

Radio 4 reporter Andrew Bomford said he saw the thieves almost crash into a man as they targeted him on a pedestrian crossing. He added: ‘They almost clipped him. He threw his hands up in the air and started running after them.

‘Someone on the second bike was waving a hammer in his hand. It seemed to me like it was a warning Moped menace: The pillion passengers wield a hammer, left, and a crowbar, inset to not try to follow them or grab them.

‘It’s completely brazen, and it is happening all the time.’

Police are desperate to catch thugs who use stolen mopeds to mug pedestrians and grab valuable goods from fashionable shops.

Offences involving mopeds in London rose seven-fold in two years to 7,668 last year. In Islington, North London, more than 300 phones were being snatched a month at one point.

Officers believe there is a hardcore of around 200 thugs responsible for the majority of the crimes.

Chief Superintendent Peter Ayling, head of policing in Westminster, said: ‘We have been made aware of this serious incident and it is a top priority to identify and arrest these reckless offenders.’