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Raids rise to 12 in a month
ARMED robbers targeted Camden businesses and banks in an unprecedented series of daylight heists in January.
The Flying Squad was called to the borough 12 times in four weeks to investigate raids on security vans, bookmakers and banks. Raids on businesses, normally about one a week in Camden, shot up to five a week during January, according to Met police statistics released this week.
Targets included health food shop Fresh and Wild in Parkway, Camden Town, on New Year’s Eve, a security van in Brecknock Road, Kentish Town, on January 3, and the Halifax bank in Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park, on January 25. Staff at Ladbrokes bookmakers in West End Lane, West Hampstead, were threatened with a gun during a hold-up on January 18.
Ten of the 12 raids being investigated were in daylight as shoppers milled past security staff carrying cash boxes to or from businesses. In seven raids, robbers escaped with the cash.
A spokesman for the Met said the possibility that the cash-in-transit robberies were linked was being investigated.
The figures will come as a blow to Camden police, who are struggling to bring a soaring robbery rate under control in time to meet annual targets determined in April.
Although Camden has enjoyed a reduction in violent crimes and sexual offences, the number of burglaries, car crimes and robberies has risen significantly in 2006-7, bucking the downward trend in the Met as a whole.
Two men face charges in connection with an alleged attempt to steal cash-in-transit in Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, on January 26.
Garnet Ampong, 21, from Peckwater Street, Kentish Town, and Vincent Kamara, 19, of Endsleigh Street, Bloomsbury, are charged with conspiracy to rob.
DI Adrian Lewis from Camden Police’s Robbery Squad said: “We are aware of the increase in commercial robberies in the borough and are tackling these with thorough investigation and in some cases, we are working together with specialist units within the MPS.
Camden is sharing intelligence with other units and it is anticipated that this rise will be reduced. In the meantime anyone who may have any information s asked to call police on 020 7404 1212 or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
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