Bike-riding ‘phone thieves’ caught after helicopter chase through London streets

Two men who snatched phones from pedestrians while riding e-bikes were caught in less than two hours, police say.

CCTV footage shows the moment a bandana-clad figure swerves onto a pavement in central London and appears to swipe a gadget from the hands of a man as he passes him.

Other clips filmed by a police helicopter and an officer’s bodycam shows the alleged thieves recklessly weaving between traffic in an effort to escape.

Two men who appear to be in their early 20s are then seen being apprehended by armed officers at an address.

The Metropolitan Police said the pair stole several phones during a one-hour spree across Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea.

Naming them only as Parkinson and Wilson, the force said they ‘face a combined sentence of over five years’ in prison.

Earlier this week, the Met released footage of a separate incident in which an e-bike rider snatched a woman’s phone out of her hand at a bus stop.

The force said he showed ‘no regard’ for pedestrians as he fled, before being traced and detained at a youth centre in Islaington.

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