How the moped thieves might be illegal e-bike users now, and how they are ramping up the speed on these bikes that make them doubly dangerous and how the police are tackling them with their own equipment and a zero tolerance policy in London.
#phonethieves
#illegalebikes
#lawlessbritain
#cops&robbers
#Londoncrime
often gangs of um cyclists that will come in and snatch phones they even have adapted sticky gloves to be able to grab the phones easily cracking down on illegally adapted ebikes enabling phone thieves to make quick getaways illegal ebikes and E Scooters are being seized by city of London Police in an attempt to crack down on phone snatches officers say gangs are using them to make a swift getaway because the modified bikes can reach speeds of up to 45 5 mph our home Affairs correspondent Sonia Jessup has been out with a team of officers set up to Target the problem this is how quickly a phone snatcher can strike targeting londoners who often don’t even see them coming these are organized often gangs of um cyclists that will come in and snatch phones they even have adapted sticky gloves to be to grab the phones easily and for an even faster getaway they’re using illegal ebikes and scooters like this one seized by city of London Police it’s supposed to only do 15 and2 milph but and all it takes is the Twist and go that’s the miles an hour 43 mph the fall says it’s seizing around five illegal ebikes and scooters a week and as you can see looking at it it is just a normal framed bike however it’s got a great big battery attached here a great big battery attached here all the cables and everything in here and if you look at this whe in the rear it’s got a motor within that the kits to convert them can be bought online for just a couple of hundred and police say as well as being popular with phone thieves they’re also putting lives at risk they’re really heavy if I pick this up this weighs a good probably 30 kilos so that H you if that hits you at 25 M hour it’s like a motorbike hitting you so they’re really dangerous the for says phone snatching so to a record high in the summer of 20224 43 offenses in July alone so they’ve brought back their cycling Response Unit the crime fell by 11% last year compared to the one before we look at the Intel where most of the snatches are happening and we’ll task six to eight officers on bikes in those areas and it’s not just phone snatchers they’re also stopping delivery drivers for using illegal ebikes delivery drivers are using them because they haven’t got to pay for insurance and licenses and tests to a moped and when they can go out and buy a fairly cheap bicycle and then go and buy a kit for £ 3400 uh get it fixed onto the bicycle and as you’ve just seen they’ll go plus 30 mph plus but if caught their bikes will end up here just eat told us safety is a key priority and it takes a zero tolerance approach to Illegal vehicle use but this is just almost like a motorbike in it the size of it we’ve even had um a unicycle version where it looks like a great big motorbike wheel without the rest of the motorbike and you sort of stand either side on it and lean and and and there’s a little stick and you throttle and it goes and they they go up to 60 M hour we’ve seized two of two or three of them um yeah they’re quite dangerous he’s reminding londoners to be wary of how fast phone snatchers can work Sonia Jessup BBC London