Muggers and pickpockets threaten future of the West End

Premier London shopping destination has become a magnet for criminal gangs who target wealthy tourists

MUGGINGS and pick-pocketing in London’s West End have risen more than three-fold in the past two years as criminals increasingly target wealthy foreign tourists. The number of thefts from a person rose to 2,806 in the district last year, up from 796 in 2021.

Theft accounts for some 60 per cent of crime in the area that includes Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, according to figures compiled by the Heart of London Business Alliance.

The industry group represents 600 retailers, restaurants and property owners in the district, where shoplifting has also been on the rise.

Ros Morgan, chief executive of the group, said: “Retail crime in the West End is not just a threat to businesses but to the entire community, and luxury goods are no exception.

“There was a significant spike in shoplifting and a rising number of thefts across the West End in 2023. We have long called for a greater police presence to deter criminal activities and instil a sense of security.”

It comes after Sacha Berendji, Marks & Spencer’s operations director, warned last summer that crime rates were rising there because the shopping destination was falling into disrepair.

One retail chief said store owners in nearby Bond Street were particularly concerned about a rise in crime at night.

Nickie Aiken, the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, said criminals were targeting wealthy tourists and Londoners. She said the situation had worsened since the end of the pandemic, with criminals using electric bikes to snatch valuables. She said: “We must see more police on the street, particularly in crime hotspots to provide both reassurance and crime prevention. We do not want the West End to become a no-go zone.”

Police have warned luxury watch owners to be alert to gangs targeting them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Around 300 watches, worth a combined £4million, were stolen in six months in central London.

Separate figures provided by Watchfinder revealed the number of watches stolen almost doubled in England and Wales between 2015 and 2022.

Ben Russell, commander for Met Intelligence, said: “We identified the locations and times where these crimes were taking place and deployed undercover officers into the area, as part of our precision-based approach to fighting crime.”

Chris Philp, the policing minister, said: “Theft from the person is down nationally, 40 per cent since 2010, but showing a worrying upward trend in London. We are taking action, and it’s working. But we need the help of local mayors and PCCs in each force area. Sadiq Khan needs to crack down on this but he has no plan. He has closed the London Crime Reduction board and given up on protecting Londoners.”

A BOX of clay phalluses has been delivered to a gallery that housed a sculpture of a naked man whose penis was repeatedly stolen.

Grimsby erected a statue to the town’s legendary founder Grim in 1973, but the heroic statue depicting a naked fisherman had to be put into storage in 2006 after vandals snapped off the seventh iteration of his often-stolen penis.

The town’s Turntable Gallery recently rescued the 9ft statue from storage, and has now received a mysterious box of clay penises after it announced plans to restore and display the towering nude. The genital sculptures, which arrived in a biscuit tin stuffed with straw, had apparently been bequeathed by a local grandfather.

According to legend, a fisherman named Grim saved the superhuman Prince Havelock, the son of a Danish king, from drowning, a feat that was commemorated by the local landmark.

Dale Wells, the co-owner of the Turntable Gallery, believes the mysterious local correspondent who posted the penises was trying to help with plans for the redisplay.

He said: “We were quite surprised to be honest, it’s quite a rare find. But we were quite overjoyed because people are really invested in the statue.” He added that he found a “lot of different styles and shapes” in the biscuit tin, although the members are unlikely to be the ones stolen from the Grim statue.

Mr Wells described the statue’s penis as “quite popular and people would often tear them off ”. The box of penises may be included in a future exhibition on local responses to the Grim sculpture, Mr Wells added.

The statue of Grim was created by the artist Douglas Wain-Hobson and stood in the grounds of the Grimsby Institute. By 2006 the statue had been stripped of its penis several times and the decision was taken to put the sculpture into storage. It was put back on display last year.