This shocking image of a pensioner being mugged is taken from footage police failed to collect in February.
One man is seen tearing a necklace from the 70-year-old woman in Carlisle Road, Romford, at 4.30pm on February 7.
Another camera angle clearlyshows three young men running from the scene seconds later. This is the clearest footage of the event.
The police twice requested the footage but never collected it, said Mike Bartlett, 57, of Victoria Road, who captured the incident.
He said: “I got a phone call from the police. They said ‘we understand you have footage of an old lady being mugged and we’d like to see it’. But no one ever turned up.”
Appeal
A few days later the police called again. Mr Bartlett said that police offered to supply him with a similar CCTV machine in order to take his away to view the footage.
He says the police have still not contacted him.
In February the Recorder ran an appeal for witnesses to the mugging. Lorraine Moss, of Carlisle Road, came forward with CCTV footage of the incident. The police had previously not tried to recover it.
Cllr Roger Evans, London Assembly member for Havering and Redbridge, said that criminals were getting off “scot-free” as police recovered CCTV footage in just a fifth of crimes.
Havering Police had not responded to requests for a comment before the Recorder went to press.
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