Gang jailed for £1.2m moped raids on mobile phone shops

TEN members of a moped smashand-grab gang have been jailed for a total of 110 years after a £1.2m string of raids on mobile phone shops.

The men, who were armed with hammers and knives, broke into stores using portable angle grinders and fencing blocks used as makeshift battering rams, which were left as a calling card.

Wearing motorcycle helmets and dark clothing, they ransacked the stockrooms of 17 shops.

All but one of the raids were carried out on shops run by mobile phone company Three, costing the firm an estimated £1.2m in lost stock, damage, increased security and the closure of a branch targeted four times.

Courtney White, 23, Mominur Rahman, 22, Mohammed Hussain, 24, Chang Mabiala, 22, Mohammed Ali, 24, Chris Costi, 19, Bobby Kennedy, 22, Alfie Kennedy, 21, Adam Attalah, 21, and Dylan Castano Lopez, 20, were all either convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, conspiracy to commit burglary between May 1 and November 27 last year.

Judge Michael Simon jailed the gang for a total of 110 years and one month at London’s Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday, describing them as “young in chronological age, but old in criminality”.

White, from Wood Green in north London, was jailed for 18 years, with a two-year extended licence period; Rahman, from Camden in north London, was jailed for 12 and a half years; Hussain, 24, from Hackney, east London, was jailed for ten years; Mabiala, from Islington, north London, was jailed for eight and a half years; Ali, from Hackney, was jailed for seven years and one month; Costi, from Hackney, was jailed for eight and a half years; Bobby Kennedy, from Islington, was jailed for 11 and a half years; Alfie Kennedy, from Shoreditch, was jailed for 13 years and one month; Attalah, of no fixed address, was jailed for ten years and ten months; and Lopez, from Camberwell, south London, was jailed for ten years and one month.