India’s wealthy ‘fear London is worse than Delhi for muggings’

Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said. Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite. “People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.” Narang said rich Indians considered it safer to walk around New Delhi than London. “Indians do carry expensive things, but the police not responding is a matter of concern,” he said. “London is a walking city. You don’t want to look over your shoulder all the time. You don’t want to go to a city where you’re likely to be mugged in the streets. It doesn’t make you feel comfortable. You can walk anywhere in Delhi and you won’t be mugged.” Lammy, who is in New Delhi for trade talks, told the meeting that during his short visit, several other people had also raised concerns about muggings and thefts in central London. He said that “security and fighting crime” would be key priorities under Labour. Thefts from the person – which includes muggings, bag-snatches and mobile phone theft – in the City of Westminster, which includes Mayfair, rose by 40% last year to 25,650, while in London they rose 27%. There were 72.4 reported thefts from the person per 1,000 people resident in the borough, according to Crime Rate, a website that analyses crime statistics. In the past five years, 29,000 watches have been reported stolen to the Met, with one in five of those thefts involving violence, according to a freedom of information request by database The Watch Register. A spokesperson for the mayor of London’s office, which oversees the Metropolitan police, said: “The Met have stepped up their response to robberies – which are rising nationally – and have specialist teams out proactively targeting the most prolific offenders and robbery hotspots.” Last month, the force revealed that it had deployed undercover “victim” officers wearing expensive watches in order to catch thieves. Sir Mark Rowley, the Met police commissioner, praised plainclothes officers for their bravery in volunteering to be targeted by violent robbers in two operations across South Kensington, Chelsea, Soho and Mayfair. He said the officers – who wore luxury brands such as Rolex and Patek Philippe – had shown “real guts” to go out and “be robbed by violent criminals”. The operation has led to more than 20 convictions so far. The Met police’s commander of intelligence, Ben Russell, said of the thieves: “There are groups of young men, mainly in their 20s and 30s, hanging around outside bars and clubs spotting people, and they know what they’re looking for. “They’re not stealing people’s fakes – they are targeting original, genuine, expensive watches. They’re getting right up in people’s faces, they’re manhandling victims, they’re spending quite a bit of time talking to victims to make sure they know what they’re stealing.”