Police officers are being hampered in their efforts to tackle violent moped-muggings involving acid and knives by strict guidelines governing the pursuit of riders, a former Scotland Yard officer has claimed.

Under pressure to act after a spate of acid attacks involving high-speed mopeds, the home secretary is reportedly preparing to unveil proposals to ensure acid and similar substances can be classed as dangerous weapons.

However, police believe regulations in force when a vehicle being pursued is a moped or motorcycle can result in pursuits being called off. Criminals using scooters or pedal cycles commit 2,500 theft offences a month, usually snatching mobile phones.

Officers on the ground also believe that a shadow has been cast by the case of Henry Hicks, a young Londoner who crashed and was killed while being pursued by police in December 2014. An inquest jury last year rejected the police version of events while the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that four officers involved had a case to answer for gross misconduct.

David Videcette, who was in the Met’s counter-terror unit for six years until 2010, described the use of scooters as a “crime epidemic” that was not being taken seriously enough and claimed that IPCC prosecutions were also a problem.

We are prosecuting officers for doing their jobs for gods sakes. How can that he right?! The IPCC are driving this crime epidemic. — David Videcette (@DavidVidecette) July 14, 2017

“We really are facing a major problem here, but I’m not sure the mayor or the powers that be in the Met are taking any notice,” he said.

Videcette described how he had used his car to try to ram two scooter-riding thieves after watching them slash the face of a tourist in Chelsea and make off with his bag.

The Met confirmed that it was investigating after the man, who was in his 50s, suffered a cut to his face and two people riding a moped snatched his bag around 6pm on Hortensia Road.



On Saturday, a 31-year-old man was stabbed to death by two attackers on a moped in south-east London.

The victim was fatally wounded during a clash in which shots were also fired in King William Walk, Greenwich, the Metropolitan Police said.

A spokesperson for the IPCC said: “When the IPCC conducts a mandatory investigation into a death or serious injury to a member of the public following a police pursuit we examine if the actions of the police are in line with the policies and procedures set either nationally by the NPCC and College of Policing or locally by the police force.

“All officers are treated as witnesses until there is any evidence that would suggest either misconduct or criminality so any suggestion that the IPCC is overzealous in its approach to investigations is simply wrong.”

Pressure is mounting on ministers to take action to curb the rise in acid attacks as one of the victims of a recent spree in London described how his face felt like it was on fire.

Five men were attacked with acid by two people riding mopeds across the north and east of the capital on Thursday night. Two teenage boys, aged 15 and 16, remain in custody on suspicion of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm.

On Saturday it emerged that there may have been a sixth acid attack victim in a separate incident. Police were called at around 5pm on Friday to reports of an attempted robbery of a moped in Ballards Road, Dagenham. The victim – a man in his 20s – was approached by two males on a moped who squirted what was described as a “noxious substance” at him. Police said he did not have lasting injuries, and he has been discharged from hospital.

The Home Office is considering imposing tough new restrictions on corrosive substances after a string of acid attacks in London, amid calls from one London MP for more severe sentences for possession of harmful acids.



A victim of one of the Thursday attacks, Jabed Hussain, reportedly had his moped stolen before the two suspects sprayed him with the dangerous liquid. Hussain, 32, an UberEats delivery driver, was on the corner of Queensbridge Road and Hackney Road when the two men on a moped pulled up to his left.

Hussain told the Guardian that the area had been the scene of many knife and other violent attacks on delivery drivers in recent months. “First of all, I didn’t realise it was acid; then it started to burn. I saw they wanted to do it again, so I jumped off my bike and tried to hide from them behind cars,” Hussain said.

After his moped was stolen, Hussain ran up to cars stopped at the traffic lights, knocked on windows and begged for help. “I was screaming for help and for water. No one was opening their door or window.”

Hussain’s injuries were not judged to be “life-changing”, but his burned lips are getting worse, he told the Press Association on Saturday.

“I’m too scared to go back to work,” he said. “I’m really scared. I don’t know what to do. My wife, she’s scared. My family’s scared. They were asking me to leave that job, but I love that job.”

He said the riders’ union is holding a demonstration at parliament on Tuesday to demand action to stop the attacks. “If we see the government taking action, and if it’s back to normal, I am happy to go back to work,” he said.



Police said the 15-year-old was arrested at an address in Stoke Newington on Friday morning. Later the 16-year-old was arrested in the early hours of Friday in Kingsbury Road after he was identified near the scene of the offences by local authority CCTV operators. The pair are in custody at a north London police station.

Thursday’s attacks came days after John Tomlin, 25, appeared in court accused of throwing acid at aspiring model Resham Khan, 21 and her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37. They were left with life-changing injuries after the attack on Khan’s 21st birthday in Beckton, east London.