One victim was robbed and then taken into a shop and robbed some more
An ‘exceedingly violent’ thief who threatened ‘to slash’ someone’s neck, slapped a victim and robbed another at machete point. At around 9.30pm, on December 4 last year, Teddy Kelt stalked the first victim – a 22-year-old man onto the platform of Mile End Underground station and told him he was armed with a knife and threatened to stab him if he called for help.
After stealing the man’s phone, Kelt patted him down and rifled through his pockets before slapping him in the face, pushing him to the floor, and legging it, British Transport Police has said. The next day, thieving Kelt sat next to a 16-year-old boy on the Jubilee Line and asked about his phone before flashing a machete and demanding his phone.
Two days later, Kelt tried to rob three people on the Northern line heading towards Totteridge and Whetstone Underground station. Here he sat opposite a 21-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy, asking about the man’s watch, and threatening them both.
He then walked up to a 19-year-old man and asked about his headphones before threatening to stab him for his phone. He dropped his knife on the floor in front of the man before leaving the train.
The next day, Kelt approached another man on the platform of Finchley Central Underground station and asked to use his phone to call a friend. He then followed the victim onto the train and showed him the handle of a knife in his waistband, threatening to kill him.
The terrified victim was then relieved over his phone, laptop, and iPad before Kelt made him get off the train at Tufnell Park before leading him into a newsagent and also robbing him of his headphones and rucksack. Dissatisfied with the technological haul, Kelt then tried to rob a 17-year-old of their phone on the Elizabeth line, again threatening to stab him.
When other passengers intervened, Kelt tried to punch one of them. Not long after, on another Elizabeth Line train, Kelt tried to rob another man of his phone and said he would “slash his neck” before walking off.
In total, over the four day spree Kelt robbed goods worth nearly £4,000. Kelt has already been hit with a 3-year and nine-month prison sentence for three more robberies where he made off with goods worth £2,000, two more attempted robberies, two counts of possessing Class C drugs, and possessing a corrosive substance in a public place.
These robberies and attempted robberies took place at Ilford, Gidea Park, Goodmayes, Bexleyheath, and Seven Kings between November 29, 2024 and December 9, 2024.
He was caught after cops raced to the scene of a robbery in Gidea Park, Romford, on December 9. He was recognised from CCTV and police went to his house early in the morning his address early in the morning, finding him in the garden wearing a stolen coat with several stolen phones in his home.
Kelt pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court on Tuesday (September 9) to three counts of robbery and three counts of attempted robbery. He also pleaded guilty to two public order offences, two counts of possessing a knife of a bladed article in public, and common assault.
He will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on October 16. Detective Sergeant Steven Ridpath-Mitchell said: “Kelt is an exceedingly violent and dangerous individual who spent four days mostly targeting teenagers, threatening them at knifepoint, for his own benefit. I hope that his guilty plea provides some sense of closure to the victims after he put them through such an awful ordeal.
“He’s shown no remorse for his actions, either refusing to be interviewed or providing no comment or reply. The threats that he made against innocent commuters and the violence he used to rob them of their belongings is frankly sickening.
“There is absolutely no tolerance for robbery on the railway network, and we have regular patrols on trains and in stations of uniformed officers alongside our specially trained plain-clothed officers to detect and deter robbery around the clock.”
Anyone who is the victim of or witness to a robbery or any offence on the railway network or on the London Underground should report it to us by speaking to an officer or a member of staff, by contacting us on our text-to-report number 61016, or by calling 0800 40 50 40.
If a robbery has just happened, always dial 999 – officers can immediately deploy to a location and begin their enquiries to trace offenders.
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