Heartless burglars snatch electronics worth thousands of pounds from key training hub

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Workers at a firm which delivers training to young people have been left devastated after thieves stole more than £25,000 worth of laptops, cameras and microphones.

Burglars are believed to have broken into Orange Bow CIC, and Sage & Poppy coffee shop, in Norwood Road, Tulse Hill late last Wednesday and made off with thousands of pounds in electronics.

Orange Bow has provided training and employment help to hundreds of young people in Lambeth since 2018.

Ryan Bakure, co-founder of Orange Bow, said the break-in had forced it to put on hold training it delivers to dozens of local teenagers and young adults.

The 43-year-old said: “We can’t do any training because we don’t have any laptops.

“We do free support for disabled kids. We’ve had to put that on pause. We go into local schools and we can’t do that because we don’t have the equipment.

“We’ve tried to do some [training] with them [students] jumping on their phones, but you can’t pass your maths GCSE like that.”

Mr Bakure received a phone call from police in the early hours of Thursday morning informing him about the break-in.

A driver who delivers croissants to Sage & Poppy coffee shop, which is at the front of the building, had noticed the door had been forced in, according to Mr Bakure.

The driver is believed to have briefly spoken to one of the suspected thieves, who claimed they were a cleaner. He then returned to his vehicle and phoned police.

Mr Bakure, who lives in Bromley, arrived at the building at around 3.45am. Recalling the scene, he said: “I came in and everything was gone. We had 60 something laptops—gone. The iPads, everything, anything technical—gone. The camera hardware for the CCTV was gone.

“It was a well-planned operation. They knew what they came in for. They knew about the security. They knew about the alarm system and everything.”

Mr Bakure worked as a project manager at an IT firm in the City before setting up Orange Bow. He quit his job after becoming dissatisfied with the lack of progress around diversity. He set up Orange Bow with three university friends seven years ago.

The firm was originally based in Brixton Road, before moving to Stockwell. It relocated to Tulse Hill around two years ago. Orange Bow now employs 14 staff and delivers training in local schools such as City Heights Academy and Elmgreen School.

Thai Walker, 23, a student at Orange Bow, said she was ‘devastated’ by the break-in. Fabien Moseley-Hylton, another student, added: “The cameras were gone so we couldn’t film anything for two days. We lost a lot of files and old work.”

A fundraiser set up last week to raise money to pay for replacement equipment has raised around £1,000 in donations so far.

Cllr Dr Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for safer communities, said: “Orange Bow runs vital support for our community in Tulse Hill, so we are shocked and saddened that they have been so cruelly targeted in this way.

“Having visited them in the wake of this incident to see the full impact I have pledged, alongside the Mayor of Lambeth, to do all we can to help get them back on their feet.”