Moped gang jailed over BBC camera equipment robbery

Cambridge University practice Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption BBC camera equipment filming the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race worth £170,000 was stolen

A gang of moped robbers behind high-profile thefts, including that of BBC camera equipment from the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, have been jailed.

Members were also involved in threatening to take a woman's three-year-old son unless she handed over her jewellery in Richmond, London, in June.

Footage of the mother dragging her son into the road went viral after being tweeted by TV presenter Amanda Holden.

The gang were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court for 20 offences.

The defendants used their mopeds to block traffic before taking an angle grinder to cameras rigged up to capture the 2018 Boat Race on 22 March.

After one attempt on Putney Bridge failed, a highly-specialised camera worth an estimated £170,000 was stolen from Lonsdale Road by Barnes Bridge.

Image copyright Ian West/PA
Image caption Amanda Holden tweeted footage of an incident involving the gang

Four gang members were caught on CCTV targeting a woman with a young child in broad daylight in Sandpits Road in Richmond.

The court heard 19-year-old Isaac McFadyen told the mother: "Give me your rings. I'm going to hurt your child and take him away."

She then dragged her child away before builders chased the gang away while holding scaffolding poles.

Three of the gang, Omar Tafat, 22, Josh Myers, 19, and Kian Taylor, 20, were caught following a high-speed police chase lasting more than 90 minutes. All three piled onto the same bike, which was driven the wrong way on the A40 on 7 May 2018.

The gang, whose leader was Terry Marsh, 32, had previously been involved in two thefts of the same high-end outdoor clothing shop in Kensington, violently assaulting a security guard during the second raid.

Overall it cost the business £43,000 in lost goods and a total of £80,000 including damage.

Since then other offences have included stealing an officer's bag from an unmarked police car, spraying a police car with fire foam extinguishers as officers waited for a stolen moped to be collected and the theft of £83,000 worth of MacBooks and other Apple products from another Kensington business.

Four defendants also travelled to Redditch, Worcestershire, in January 2018 where they stole three motorbikes worth a total of £30,000 after spotting the owner's address on an eBay advert.

Sentences in full