Sadly, you might be aware that violent crime across the UK has risen by around 50%. Moped enabled robberies in London are running at around 430 per week across the Capital with Islington, Camden and Westminster Boroughs suffering most of the reported crimes. The comedian Michael McIntyre was attacked in his car recently too.

We have seen large and small business, pedestrians, other scooter riders and parents dropping off their children at school targeted by this epidemic.

According to the Mayor's Office, The Metropolitan police will, without extra funding, be left with "one police officer per 326 Londoners, compared to one officer per 242 Londoners in 2010 – a fall of 26%". The police's presence and ability to conduct proactivity has been significantly affected. With vast resources understandably focused on Counter Terror policing initiatives, there seems to be a lack of available resources to effectively tackle violent crime, moped gangs or scooter related crime on our streets.

There are our recommendations on how to protect yourself, your business and the people around you from this type of crime:

  1. Threat Assessment: Have you conducted a threat assessment or security audit recently, looking at how likely this is to happen?
  2. Work together with your business community: In much the same way as a neighbourhood watch works, work with them so that everyone is alert and sharing information between the business community and the police.
  3. SIA security staff: Trained security staff will be trained in handling many things, but moped crime is something relatively new and so they may not know the best ways to deal with it, particularly if there are weapons involved. We recommend they are trained to identify unusual or suspicious behaviour and to respond where appropriate.
  4. Brief ALL your staff: crimes like this can happen any time of day, so you need to ensure that all your staff are trained in situational awareness and response. Cleaners and temporary staff are just as likely to be faced with this type of situation.
  5. Physical security: dependent upon your business, is the physical security sufficient?
    a) Do you have CCTV and is it covering the right places
    b) Do you have access control systems that will only let in authorised personnel
    c) Are doors locked when they should be and with the right type of lock? Etc.
  6. Awareness of your surroundings: are you and your team vigilant as you go to and leave work? Do things seem right?
  7. Number Plates: if you do see mopeds/motorbikes hanging around, are their number plates partially covered or even missing completely?
  8. Passengers: Keep an eye out for passengers on mopeds carrying bulky equipment or bags. Do they appear to be travelling randomly without purpose or circling about a location?
  9. Safe Place: is there a Safe Place where you can shelter within your business? Somewhere for staff and customers to go if there is an attack. The safety of these people is paramount.
  10. Public places: if your vehicle is involved in this type of incident, do not leave your vehicle drive to a public place where there are people around. Sound your car horn repeatedly to draw attention to the incident. Stopping puts you and your passengers at risk.
  11. Distinguishing features: is there something that makes other mopeds / scooters stand out?
    a) Damage to the Moped/scooter
    b) The make model and, ideally registration if there is one
    c) Any specific logos or stickers?
  12. Dashcams: these can be extremely useful in recording what happens to your vehicle so consider getting one. Alternatively, your phone's camera, but only use it when it is safe to do so.
  13. Be a Good Witness: help the police, if something happens, you need to report it to the police immediately. Once they are involved, the more information and assistance you can give them, the more chance there is of them catching the suspects.
    a) Do your staff know how to access CCTV footage and share it with the police?
    b) Descriptions of suspects 'head to toe'
    c) Direction of travel
    d) Share any other information you have with them.


These recommendations are designed to reduce the likelihood of moped crime or, if the worst does happen, to protect your people and to help the police do their jobs. We hope they help.

Our company has built effective strategies in combatting moped enabled robberies for clients as well as providing physical and personal safety training and consultancy for clients.

'Staying Safe and secure is a state of mind'