A suspected shoplifter has been charged with carrying out 113 offences in Waltham Forest over 10 days, as part of a Met Police crackdown on crime and anti-social behaviour this summer. The 33-year-old allegedly stole more than £13,000 worth of goods from Sainsbury’s, Walthamstow Avenue, in Chingford, and allegedly carried out 40 further offences at Morrisons on Salisbury Hall Gardens in Chingford between January and July 2025. He will appear in court in November.
Elsewhere, a prolific shoplifter who targeted the same Co-op in Notting Hill on 15 occasions was jailed for six months in June. Steven Barrs, 44, of the Peabody Estate in Hammersmith and Fulham, stole items worth £624 from the store in St Ann’s Road between March and May 2025.
In another incident, officers on Sur-Ron bikes on patrol in the West End were alerted to a phone theft on Friday, August 1, and arrested an 18-year-old man on Tottenham Court Road. He remains on bail while further enquiries are carried out.
Officers also arrested three men within minutes of a burglary at a phone shop in the West End on Thursday, 27 July. The men reportedly entered the O2 store on Tottenham Court Road wearing balaclavas and were reported to have stolen around 100 iPhones and a number of Apple Watches with an estimated value of £100,000.
The activity is part of the Home Office’s Safer Summer Streets campaign running until the end of September, which will see officers focusing on reducing criminality and anti-social behaviour. The Met analysed crime data to identify the 20 town centres and high streets across London that have the biggest challenge with anti-social behaviour, theft and street crime.
Increased police action has been seen in hotspot areas including Stratford, Woolwich Town Centre, Finsbury Park, Croydon Town Centre, Shepherd’s Bush Green, Elephant and Castle, Seven Sisters and the West End. Between June 30 and August 10, there were 1,376 arrests in the 20 hotspot areas across London – up by a third compared to the same period last year. The number of cases solved is up 176 per cent.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s incredibly encouraging to see the impact of the Safer Summer Streets campaign in London is already having, with arrests up by a third and offending down following the Met’s crackdown in hotspot areas.
“Neighbourhood policing not only builds stronger, more connected communities where everyone feels secure, but also increases the public’s confidence in the police. That’s why I’ll continue to prioritise neighbourhood policing and provide record funding for the Met to tackle the issues that matter most to Londoners, including shoplifting, theft and anti-social behaviour, as we build a safer London for everyone.”
Crime and Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson added: “High streets and town centres are the very heart of our communities, but a decade of cuts to neighbourhood policing has left our town centres suffering from such little visible policing presence.
“We are working to turn this around. As part of our Plan for Change, we are boosting the number of neighbourhood police officers and delivering a summer blitz on town centre crime – sending a clear message to those who bring misery to our streets that their crimes will not go unpunished.
“These initial results from the Met are exactly what we want to see and demonstrate what we can achieve with a smart approach and more visible police presence, along with multi-agency action. I am grateful for their continued efforts to make streets safer for Londoners.”
The Met Police states it has achieved “promising reductions” in a number of crime types during the first six weeks of this financial year compared to the same period last year, including:
- Neighbourhood crime down by 15.3 per cent
- Knife crime down by 18.1 per cent
- Residential burglary down by 17.7 per cent
- Theft from the person down by 15.6 per cent
- Personal robbery down by 12.8 per cent
- Shoplifting – solved 163 per cent more cases this year
Keep up with the latest East London news. Sign up to our MyEastLondon newsletter HERE for daily updates and more.
