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GEM THIEVES IN EASY RIDE
Police ‘inactivity’ allowing scooter gangs to target jewellers
POLICE are struggling to put the brakes on scooter gangs targeting luxury jewellers in the West End.
Reports of thieves using sledgehammers to smash shop windows and making getaways on motorbikes have become a weekly occurrence.
And the crooks are growing in confidence with police relying on chance sightings for arrests. It is believed the rising trend has earned millions of pounds for a criminal mastermind boss employing teenagers to carry out the raids.
An inquest into the death of a 19-year-old gang member this week revealed: “The perpetrators are becoming more confident due to apparent inactivity of police.”
Mischa Niering died after crashing his scooter following a high-speed chase through Belgravia.
A police driver was discharged after last month pleading guilty to dangerous driving in court.
Scooter-chase cop ‘drove dangerously’
Teenage jewel thief killed during pursuit
A POLICE officer involved in a high-speed chase that killed a teenage jewel thief drove dangerously, a jury decided.
Mischa Niering died from multiple injuries on October 2005 after detectives sprung an attempted £5-million raid on Tiffany’s jewellers in Sloane Square.
Police tailed the 19-year-old into Cadogan Place where he collided with a parked car.
Seconds later his body was crushed by the trailing police car.
Dramatic CCTV images captured the unmarked Mondeo, that dragged Mr Niering’s body 20 yards down the road.
The jury said the risk assessment made during the chase by the officer, who last month pleaded guilty to dangerous driving in Marylebone Magistrate’s Court, and was immediately discharged from the force, was “insufficient”.
Mr Niering’s family, who sat patiently through the four-day hearing at Westminster coroner’s court in Horseferry Road, claimed the police car had killed Mischa.
But expert pathologist Dr Peter Wilkins told the hearing he had died “within seconds” after the initial collision.
The jury concluded: “There was significant pressure on the police driver. However, we find the risk assessment during the pursuit was insufficient. He did not take into account the dangers of in-tailing at speed and that it is very dangerous to drive too close to a vehicle.”
It is believed Mr Niering, from Enfield, was part of an organised “scooter gang” targeting luxury jewellers and fashion shops.
The gangs smash shop windows with sledgehammers, stealing thousands of pounds of luxury goods before speeding off on motorbikes.
The speed of the raids makes for a low detection rate, making millions of pounds for a mastermind boss, the inquest heard.
Detective Sergeant Paul Finn, who led the operation to bust the Tiffany’s raid, said the gang were responsible for dozens of lucrative raids across the West End.
He said: “There have been 54 high-value burglaries in shops around the West End that could be attributed to the same team using motorcycles, sledgehammers and sometimes cars to gain entry to the premises.”
Steve Guerrini, a sales manager whose shop was targeted in 2006, said: “We sometimes feel that there is nothing being done. There are shops all around here that have been done by this gang. All along Tottenham Court Road stores have been hit as well. We think the police are trying to keep the scale of it under their hat.”
Niering’s death led the Met in 2006 to issue new guidelines to its officers on the pursuit of suspects on mopeds.
Officers must now weigh up the increased risks of chasing a suspect on a scooter and are advised that it might be better to let them flee and follow up the offence later. In an attempt to catch members of the gang, police in the City of London are hiring scooters to pursue them. |
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