Police Believe They Have Caught Phone Snatch Gang
Trio arrested smoking pot in car on Pennard Road
Officers were in the area on an unrelated enquiry
December 13, 2022
The police believe they have caught members of a gang responsible for a spate on mobile phone snatches in the area recently.
Officers from South Fulham SNT were patrolling in Pennard Road near Shepherd’s Bush Green on Tuesday 15 November carrying out a routine enquiry into an unrelated incident.
Their attention was drawn to three males sat in a parked Ford Fiesta openly smoking cannabis.
The suspects were searched and they were collectively found to be carrying around £9,000 in cash.
On searching the vehicle, a quantity of cannabis was found inside the car, along with a baseball bat in the boot. On the back seat of the car, was a ruck sack that contained ten mobile phones wrapped in aluminium foil. It was clear that they did not belong to any of the males found in the vehicle and they were all arrested for Handling Stolen Goods, Possession of an Offensive Weapon and Possession of Class B drugs.
On arrival at the station, the £9000 cash was seized under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, whilst further investigation into its origin takes place.
A number of crime reports that had been logged in the days prior to the arrest of these men mentioned each victim had had their phone snatched by a team of young men wearing balaclavas and riding electric bikes. The descriptions logged on these reports matched those of the males in custody, and the IMEI numbers on the phones were the same as those reported stolen. The police have since contacted nine of the ten victims and the phones are being collected from Hammersmith Police Station.
Warrants were issued to search the suspect’s homes and four properties were raided including one in Luton. Two further phones were seized as a result of these searches.
The suspects have been bailed with ‘strict conditions’ and the South East Robbery squad is continuing with the investigation.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |