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Gang of moped thieves jailed for 18 years who carried out 16 day rampage across London to targeted 100 victims

Gang of moped thieves jailed for 18 years who carried out 16 day rampage across London to targeted 100 victims

 

 

A gang of moped thieves who carried out more than 100 phone muggings in a 16 day rampage across London laughed and shared jokes as they were jailed for more than 18 years.

Claude Parkinson, 18, was the leader of a teenage gang who toured the capital’s streets on stolen mopeds snatching phones out of unsuspecting pedestrians’ hands.

Known to friends as Big CJ, Parkinson was likened to he Artful Dodger as he led one of the raids.

The crime spree climaxed on May 4 when Parkinson, two boys aged 15 and 16, and a fourth accomplice who has never been caught, terrorised Oxford Street shoppers and targeting pedestrians outside BBC Television Centre.

Evening Standard editor George Osborne was among those who fell victim to Parkinson’s crew as they carried out 33 offences in the space of just 70 minutes, brandishing a hammer and a tyre iron as weapons.

Southwark crown court heard the gang notched up 103 offences around Camden, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Islington between April 19 and May 4.

Today, Judge David Tomlinson sentenced Parkinson to five years and three months in custody for leading crime spree he described as highway robbery.

The two teenage boys were each sentenced four years and two months in a young offender’s institution.

There was throughout this course of conduct a risk to the safety and wellbeing of members of our community, he said.

Your willingness to threaten violence with weapons meant your offending had spiralled out of all control.

He added the three teenage defendants, who openly joked and giggled throughout today’s sentencing hearing, were “willing and able to terrorise anyone who tried to apprehend you”.

The gang’s ‘fence’, married father Samsul Chowdhury, 40, was jailed for four years and ten months, after admitting buying stolen phones and arranging for them to be sold on.

The court heard Parkinson’s reign of terror across London came to an end when he rode past freelance photographer Ian Lawrence on May 4, with his passenger on the back wielding a hammer.

Mr Lawrence started taking pictures, which appeared on the front page of the next day’s Evening Standard, and helped police to recognise Parkinson.

A former special constable, Mark Wallis, chased after the mopeds in his Maserati until one of the gang smashed his window, shattering glass over Paula Mathers in the passenger seat.

She told the court she now feels sick with panic every time I see a black moped, and continues to have nightmares about the incident.

Mr Osborne, who was stood outside the BBC headquarters when someone tried to grab his phone, said he was left shocked and stunned.

The scooter was so close that it almost brushed past me. Had it hit me I have no doubt I would have been seriously injured, he said.

Frederick Frank, who was mugged by the gang on April 21, said he saw the moped riders whopping with joy after Parkinson grabbed his phone.

They seemed like new recruits being shown the ropes by a modern day Artful Dodger, he said of Parkinson.

The court heard Chowdhury, from Bethnal Green, was in regular contact with Parkinson’s crew and other phone thieves who referred to him as boss.

He texted out detailed price lists for stolen iPhones and smartphones, while his personal accounts ledger revealed he was raking in almost £10,000 a week in April and May from stolen goods.

Mr Fairley told the court the numbers of moped phone snatches halved in London after the gang’s capture, adding that it was only for a month or two, before others took up the mantle.

Parkinson’s gang struck five times, on April 19, 21, 29, 30, and May 4, sometimes resorting to violence during the robberies.

Mr Fairley said one woman’s earring was pulled out of her ear as her phone was stolen, while another victim was pushed in the chest.

Parkinson, from Islington, and the two teenage boys pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery.

Parkinson and one of the boys also admitted breaching a criminal behaviour order.

Chowdhury pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.

All three teenagers will be the subjects of criminal behaviour orders and banned from driving for two years when they are released from custody.




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