Almost 200 people have been arrested in a police operation against prolific thieves who use e-bikes or mopeds to carry out snatch robberies on London’s streets.
The UK capital’s reputation for safety has been tarnished by the rise in “e-bike bandits” – criminals who ride up to potential victims to grab their phone or watch before evading police through the city’s streets.
An operation in the hotspot area of Westminster resulted in 157 vehicles being seized and 187 arrests, which included possession of dangerous weapons, drug-related offences, and robbery and theft offences.
It focused on offenders who were known to police, or who had links to previous incidents.
They included a knife-carrying 17-year-old boy chased and caught riding a moped linked to an alleged phone theft earlier that morning and a 22-year-old man wanted for robbery offences who ran over an officer as he tried to escape on an illegal e-bike. During a search, officers found several stolen mobile phones wrapped in tin foil in an attempt to interfere with tracking signals.
Officers on bikes were able to follow stolen phones using tracking data and pursue criminals through busy areas. The Metropolitan Police have expanded its fleet of high-powered Sur-Ron e-bikes from five to 25.
In areas such as Lambeth and Southwark, and key tourist and transport centres including Waterloo and London Bridge, e-bike related crime fell by 22 per cent during the operation, which ran from February to July.
Last year, police in London promised to use facial recognition technology and more “boots on the ground” to combat the city’s problem with violent robberies.
The new head of a task force specifically focusing on crime in the West End said the Met were determined to make the area “the most hostile environment to operate anywhere”.
Some international visitors have been put off spending time in London because of the rise of phone and watch snatching.
The West End shopping streets of Oxford Street and Regent Street plus the nearby areas of Mayfair and Knightsbridge have gained a reputation for violent thefts, spawning the term “Rolex Rippers” due to the number of luxury watches that have been stolen.
“Through targeted operations like this, we are staying one step ahead of the criminals who use high-powered bikes or mopeds to steal from Londoners,” said Det Supt Gareth Gilbert, who led the latest operation.
“By disrupting this criminality and making hundreds of arrests, we’re making London a safer place to live, work and visit. Our approach is working, with neighbourhood crime down 14 per cent over the past year and 13,000 fewer phone thefts.”
There has also been a crackdown on illegal and modified e-bikes used on London’s roads, resulting in more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters seized so far this year.
The arrests form part of the Met's wider work to tackle weapons and violent crime, with 676 firearms and 2,894 knives taken off the streets last year.
As part of a wider response to personal theft and robbery across London, theft of personal items and mobile phones has fallen by 15.6 per cent in 2026, while robbery has decreased by 12.8 per cent.
