Deliveroo-style firms lead to 30-fold rise in moped crime

ONLINE delivery services are contributing to a rise in moped crimes, which have increased 30-fold in five years in the capital.

The number of offences carried out on mopeds in London has risen from 827 in 2012 to 23,000 last year, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

Dr Simon Harding, a criminology expert from the University of West London, said the surge was partly due to criminal gangs being able to steal mopeds from delivery drivers.

He explained that the proliferation of food or goods delivery services had created a “perfect storm” for criminals.

“In the last few years we have seen the number of food delivery services such as Ubereats and Deliveroo expand rapidly,” he said. “And in turn that has fuelled people riding around on mopeds more often. They’re cheaper and faster to get around on and now have become easy targets for criminals who are looking to steal the bikes to carry out further crimes.”

Delivery drivers are an easy way for criminals to get their hands on mopeds as they are often in unfamiliar surroundings and have to leave their bikes when delivering an order. Criminals are then able to carry out moped-enabled crime including drive-by thefts of pedestrians’ phones and bags.

During the period covered by the figures, more than 40 per cent of offences happened in just two boroughs, Camden and Islington.

Met Police Det Supt Caroline Haines, who leads the operation tackling moped crime there, said: “Since January we’ve deployed a number of new tactics that are now starting to see dividends… we’re not complacent. We do understand there’s a lot more work to do.”