A gang has been sentenced to 68 years in prison following a string of crimes carried out by the group including stealing a camera during the live filming of a boat race by BBC.
Judge Georgina Kent said the gang carried out its crime spree described as an “exceptionally serious and shocking attempted robbery” four gang members were caught on CCTV targeting a woman with a young child in daylight in Sandpits Road in Richmond.
A notorious London moped gang has been jailed for a total of 68 years.
Their crimes include:
– Attempting to steal cameras from The Boat Race
– Attempting to rob from a mother and her child pic.twitter.com/ZaraYf4L2T
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) May 14, 2019
Pheobe Ruele was walking hand-in-hand with her son when two motorcycles road past, pulled into the road and waited for her on June 21 last year.
Footage shows the “terrified” woman dragging her child into the road before builders, armed with scaffolding poles, chase the gang away.
The defendants, who are aged between 19 and 36, also used their mopeds to block traffic before taking an angle grinder to cameras rigged up to capture the boat race on March 22 last year – eventually making off with a BBC camera worth around £180,000.
The gang, who were all linked to ringleader Terry Marsh, 32, were sentenced for offences including conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to burgle, conspiracy to steal, criminal damage and handling stolen goods.
The gang first came to police attention on December 31, 2017, when they carried out a ram-raid on high-end outdoor clothing company Altimus Ltd in High Street Kensington using a stolen Range Rover and several mopeds.
They returned the following month and assaulted a security guard, the two raids cost the business £43,000 in lost goods, and £80,000 in repairs.
In April they raided three businesses stealing electronic equipment – and taking £83,000 of MacBooks and other Apple products from one firm alone.