High street targeted by gangs who ‘give out weapons’ to rob partygoers

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Brazen criminals are robbing partygoers then giving them a lift home on a lawless high street.

Gangs terrorising Clapham High Street have even chased people down the road with knives, Jeremy Keates from the Lambeth council affiliated Clapham Business Improvement District revealed at a council meeting on Tuesday.

He said wardens employed by the organisation to deal with petty antisocial behaviour from drunken revellers had turned into a “gang management service” in recent months.

Mr Keates said he was struggling to keep security staff because of the uptick in violence, which has also seen wardens have their body-worn cameras ripped off and them threatened with revenge, leaving them fearful of phoning the police. 

He told a council scrutiny committee: “We’ve had a really challenging last six months. We’ve had a warden service that is principally designed to deal with low level ASB (antisocial behaviour) as a result of intoxication in more recent months become a gang management service on the high street.

“The result we have is a high turnover in security staff. Some of the things that happen on the street is teams of wardens being chased down the high street with knives. They have their body worn cameras ripped off, people threatening to wait outside the office where they change and attack them after work. 

“They’ve seen people robbed of all their possessions and given lifts home by assailants. Ultimately, we have wardens, [and] venues too scared to call the police.”

A half an hour walk north of Clapham in popular going out spot Vauxhall, gangs are beating people unconscious during muggings, a business leader revealed.

Bernard Collier, from business group Vauxhall One, said he looked back on pre-pandemic violence as “halcyon days,” compared to the crimes he had seen since Christmas last year.

He told the meeting: “If you stop someone mugging you, you will be pounced on by about 16 different people and they will beat you until you’re unconscious. Last weekend that happened to somebody. 

“The crime is not generated by the businesses. It is generated by organised, violent criminals, who arrive sometimes in vans or in cars, who open up the boot of the cars and give out weapons.” 

Mr Collier said it had been known for years that the gangs started off in Shoreditch on weekend nights targeting revellers around midnight, before making their way to the West End at around 2am and finally crossing the river to Vauxhall in time for the earlier club closing times of 4am. 

He added: “We’ve heard over a number of years that we can’t have people [police] in the area at the time of turning out of nightclubs between 4am and 6am because of the turning over of shifts… can we really not have something that adapts to the needs of the night-time economy in general?”

Wardens from Clapham BID attended at least 661 incidents in the past 12 months, according to Mr Keats. When their weekend patrols were suspended around October and November last year, a woman was kidnapped and there were two stabbings, one fatal, on the high street, he added.

Since then the number of police officers in the area had increased at weekends and there had been a drop off in gang violence in recent weeks, Mr Keats said. 

Explaining what more could be done to improve safety around the high street, he added: “I think the council has a role to play, for example the warden and business radio link through to the Lambeth CCTV office had not worked for well over a year. The ability for a warden to call the CCTV operator, turn the camera on to a situation can help.”

Lambeth council have been approached for comment.

Pictured top: Clapham High Street is a popular going out spot (Picture: Google Street View)