Prison will be the next stop for a four-man gang of phone snatchers responsible for a string of late-night bus robberies.
The men carried out 13 robberies between December 2010 and February 2011 in Islington, Camden and the City of London, targeting lone passengers on night buses. Two of the victims suffered minor injuries.
They have now been jailed for a total of more than 14 years in total at Blackfriars Crown Court after three admitted taking part in between eight and 13 of the cases and one confessed to a single robbery.
They included two in one night in Finsbury on January 22 last year, when an iPhone was stolen from a 25-year-old woman on the N38 in Rosebery Avenue at 2.30am, before a 49-year-old’s smartphone was taken at about 4am on the N55 in Goswell Road.
Ch Supt Sultan Taylor, of the Met’s Safer Transport Command, said: “Our message is clear – if you commit crime on the transport network we will identify you and arrest you.”
Walter Michaels, 32, Cedric Desveaux, 32 and Fitim Kreziu, 28, were each jailed for four and a half years for eight or more robberies. Adekunle Ekhatta, 27, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for one robbery.
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