Five arrested in dawn raid on street robbers

Sep 2 2010 By David Baker

POLICE officers carried out a succession of dawn raids today in a bid to catch criminals suspected of carrying out street robberies.

Harrow's crime squad targeted addresses in Rayners Lane, Harrow Weald and Burnt Oak after gathering intelligence as part of Operation Chappell – a four week programme tackling robbery and burglary in the borough.

Two teams were sent out to the addresses led by PC Richard Taylor who had been liaising with pawnbrokers and stores offering cash for gold in the run up to the raids.

Following the operation this morning he told the Observer: "At the moment lots of people are trying to make easy cash by selling jewellery to stores that offer money for jewellery.

"It is big business at the moment and after going through recent invoices we were able to trace people we believe to have snatched the jewellery before selling it.

"People might think that it is an easy way to make cash but we will eventually find these people and arrest them."

A stall in The InShops in High Street Wealdstone handed over more than 60 invoices of punters who sold them jewellery and PC Taylor looked at robberies committed in the days and weeks before the sales to help link the crime with the sale.

With the intelligence gathered they took teams to homes in Goldsmith Close, Rayners Lane, and Meadow Way, Harrow Weald, while officers were forced to smash their way into a home in Burnt Oak Broadway.

PC Taylor added: "Lots of the snatches we see are on elderly people or lone women and it can be very traumatic for the victims so we are pleased to have had some success today."

Last week the team made an arrest for handling stolen goods after a suspected criminal returned to the 'cash for gold' stall in The InShops to collect the remainder of the £435 cash he was offered on a suspected stolen chain.

Five additional arrests were also made this morning, three on suspicion of robbery, one of handling stolen goods, and one of criminal damage and assault on a police officer.