As if the crime situation in London was not bad enough now there has arisen the phenomena of criminals posing as police in order to gain access to people’s properties. Londoners now have to content with not only having a real police force that often can’t be arsed to visit after burglaries or other crimes and which harboured within its midst a murderer, but also fake police trying to shake down frightened people.

The Evening Standard newspaper said:

The Met are looking for two men who posed as police officers wielding batons to gain entry into a woman’s home.

In viral footage the woman recorded the men as they fled her residential block in The Shaftesburys, Barking when she asked for their IDs 7pm on Tuesday.

The victim reported the pair were dressed in crude uniform including caps, harnesses and ‘asps’ (batons) and said they were there to search the property.

She allowed them entry before she became suspicious and asked to see their identification, which they could not produce.

The two men in forensic gloves talk into fake walkie talkies in a desperate bid to get the woman to believe they were real police officers calling for back up.

This visit by these criminals must have been extremely frightening for this woman. Initially she must have thought that these were real police otherwise she would not have let them in. She should have asked them to show their warrant cards before she let them in but let’s be honest here, if a man in uniform showed up on your door would you think of asking to see the warrant card as your first action? A lot of people would not. They would see the uniform and just assume they were genuine police officers.

On this occasion these fake cops have been sussed but I wonder if they’ve struck in the past and not been called out on their fakery? This pair might have shaken down a number of other people for money and property and the frightened victims might be afraid of contacting the real police because for various reasons they might be afraid the Met might turn on them.

This is a seriously worrying crime and I hope that this pair of fakers are caught soon.