Home » Weekly Crime Roundup » Weekly Crime Roundup: 30 April – 7 May 2012

Weekly Crime Roundup: 30 April – 7 May 2012

Amanda Leek, 8:04 pm, Wednesday, 9 May, 2012

Weekly Crime Roundup: Bringing you the incidents and reports of the last week, with some analysis of bigger stories.

View Crime Roundup 7/5/2012 in a larger map

Tues 8th May: Wood Green and Barnet

The first person to be sentenced for inciting people to riot in London has been jailed for two years.

Terry Balson, 20, set up a Facebook group where he incited people to riot in Barnet and Wood Green on the third night of the disorder in August 2011. He was named and shamed on Facebook and Twitter.

He appeared at Wood Green Crown Court on 8th May and was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institute for encouraging and assisting in the commission of offences.

The court heard, as part of the investigation into the violent disorder in August 2011, officers from Operation Withern were looking at social media sites and found a Facebook page titled ‘For the Riot (F**k the feds)’ on which an event had been set to riot in Barnet High Road on 9 August 2011. He also encouraged people to meet up in Wood Green. Both areas were attacked on the night.

In Barnet, Colindale Police Station and a mobile police station were attacked and shops in Brent Cross and Wood Green were attacked and looted.

Balson arranged to meet two commenters on the group in Wood Green at 6pm. A couple of hours later, Balson commented “Barnet High Road is the spot apparently tonight, who’s on it”.

Seventy-two members of the public, mainly Barnet residents, called the police about Balson’s comments and a high number were obviously distressed at the creation of the group to incite violence.

Having obtained information through social media, police carried out searches on Balson’s home address in January 2012. He was not present during the search but later handed himself in at Hornsey Police station and he was arrested on suspicion of inciting others to riot. When interviewed, Balson admitted he created the Facebook group on 9 August using a computer at Wood Green Library.

Thurs 3rd May: Perivale

The police appeal is continuing for witnesses or anyone with information on the mystery of a man found dead in his car in Argyle Road, Perivale at 5:18am on 3rd May.
Police and Ambulance services attended reports of a man slumped in his blue Alfa Romeo car and pronounced the 56-year-old man dead.

A post-mortem at Uxbridge Mortuary on 4th May gave heart disease as the cause of death.

Detectives from Ealing are investigating. They would particularly like to speak to any witnesses of an altercation at the London/Eastbound slip road of the A40 around 4pm, visible from the A40 itself.

Call police on 0208 721 7062 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 with any information.

Wed 2nd May: Brent and Westminster

Five arrests in Brent and three in Westminster were made on suspected priority gang members in a series of dawn raids as part of the Metropolitan Police Service’s crack down on gang crime.

Crack cocaine, a cannabis factory and an air pistol were some of the items seized by officers in Brent and Westminster, assisted by the Territorial Support Group and Trident Gang Crime Command.

Those targeted are believed to be priority gang nominals and suspected of a series of crimes including assault, robbery, drug supply and looting in the disorder last August.

All those arrested were aged 16-24 and taken to north and central London police stations.

The arrests follow an operation the day before where officers detained six people from rival gangs following a violent fight on a bus in Brent.

Detective Chief Inspector Tim Champion, from the Trident Gang Crime Command, is confident this renewed approach will change lives and improve communities for the better. He said: “By successfully removing the negative role models and their gang associates within the local community we are hoping to prevent young people from joining gangs in the first place.”

Tues 1st May: Brent

Burglar Paul Frazer, 43, of Harlesden Road, who stole laptops and cash from a family home while the victims were asleep upstairs, has been jailed for six years. Frazer pleaded guilty at Harrow Crown Court.

At 5:20am on 17th April this year, a family with three children in Longstone Avenue, NW10, were upstairs and asleep when awoken by the sounds of an intruder downstairs.

The 51-year-old male victim investigated and saw the intruder disappear through the front door. He discovered four laptops and two bags, and cash, had been stolen. He immediately called the police who arrived within minutes.

Two hours later on Harlesdon High Street, Frazer was identified and arrested by uniformed officers on suspicion of burglary on routine patrol. He was a passenger in a mini-cab and a stop-and-search discovered the four laptops and two bags. Frazer was charged with residential burglary and remanded in custody.
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Four out of seven people arrested on suspicion of terrorist financing on 1st May are from West and South London. Two men, 47 and 30, were from Brent and a man, 49 and a woman, 45, were from Croydon. The rest were from Coventry and Cardiff.

They were arrested by the Counter Terrorism Command at four separate addresses at approximately 6am on suspicion of funding a terrorist organisation and money laundering the proceeds of crime.

The intelligence-led operation, involving Homeland Security Investigations in America, is investigating a network suspected of illegally exporting the stimulant khat, legal in the UK, to the USA and Canada.

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