Scooter crime halves with gang in prison
Ringleader of criminals who terrorised the streets of the capital on scooters locked up for 13 years
One of Britain’s most notorious moped gangs was jailed yesterday for a series of high-profile crimes that netted them about £500,000. The 12-strong gang, whose ringleader Terry Marsh, 32, was given a sentence of 13 years and two months, tried to steal a BBC camera placed in position on Putney Bridge, west London, for the Boat Race last year. Police said that London’s scooter crime wave had halved since they were arrested and removed from the streets.
ONE of Britain’s most notorious moped gangs was jailed yesterday for a series of high-profile crimes that netted them about £500,000.
The ringleader of the gang, career criminal Terry Marsh, 32, was given a sentence of 13 years and two months.
And as the 12 men were sentenced, police revealed that London’s scooter crime wave has halved since they were arrested and removed from the streets.
The gang’s offences included a “shocking” attempted robbery in which they threatened to snatch a three-year-old boy from his mother.
Clad in black with their faces hidden by helmets, the gang carried out thefts using stolen vehicles with fake number plates, Kingston Crown Court was told.
Their crime spree included blocking traffic to angle-grind a £180,000 BBC camera from a bridge before last year’s Boat Race, spraying a fire extinguisher into a police car as a distraction as they stole a motorbike and leading officers on a 90-minute high-speed chase across 10 London boroughs.
Taking them off the streets has helped to cut moped-enabled crime in the capital by 52pc in a year, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The gang admitted 16 “professional, planned and organised” offences between November 2017 and June 2018.
Judge Georgina Kent told them: “The motorbike helmets and clothing, often in black, were an effective disguise and created an intimidating appearance. The motorbikes provided a quick getaway.
“Many offences were committed in public view because you were confident you could get away with it.”
In what the judge described as an “exceptionally serious and shocking attempted robbery”, four gang members were caught on CCTV lying in wait for a woman with a young child.
Phoebe Ruele was walking hand-inhand in Richmond with her son when John Mcfadyen, 24, grabbed her arm hard enough to leave bruises and told her: “Give me your rings. I’m going to hurt your child and take him away.”
Footage which went viral on social media showed Ms Ruele dragging her child into the road before builders chased the gang away, brandishing scaffolding poles.
The defendants, aged between 19 and 36, used their mopeds to block traffic before taking an angle grinder to cameras rigged up to capture the Boat Race on March 22 last year.
Although their first attempt on Putney Bridge was interrupted by off-duty police officer Steven Wagstaff, a BBC camera worth an estimated £180,000 was stolen nearby just an hour later.
Other offences included ram-raiding a high-end outdoor clothing company in Kensington twice within a month.
Three gang members – Omar Tafat, 22, Josh Myers, 19, and Kian Taylor, 20 – were arrested on May 7 last year after leading police on a high-speed chase.
While three of the gang had no previous convictions, the other nine had a total of 383, including burglaries, handling stolen goods, car theft, assault and robbery.
The gang, all linked to ringleader Marsh, were sentenced for conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to burgle, conspiracy to steal, criminal damage and handling stolen goods.
Officers said they were highly forensically aware and carried out several raids without leaving any DNA evidence, forcing the police to spend a year painstakingly analysing huge volumes of mobile phone data.
Marsh alone, whose criminal record lists 78 previous offences including burglaries from 2003 to 2014, had three handsets and 20 SIM cards.
Tafat, 22, of Fulham, was jailed for a total of eight years and five months while Myers, 19, and Taylor, 20, were sent to young offenders institutions for eight years and nine years and four months respectively.
Mcfadyen was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to rob, while his brother Isaac, 19, also admitted conspiracy to rob and was sentenced to 32 months in a young offenders institution.