Masked machete gang tried to steal our £6k e-bikes…now we’re quitting lawless Britain & moving to Spain to escape

It was meant to be a beautiful sunny bike ride along a canal but turned into a terrifying nightmare at the hands of balaclava-clad yobs. Pamela Wilson, 49, and partner Robin Hart, 57, were enjoying a day out cycling the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath when masked-up teens with weapons, including a machete, tried to steal their £6,000 e-bikes. Pamela and Robin are sick of “lawless” Britain and are leaving for Spain after the attempted robbery Credit: Glen Minikin Gang members told us how they don’t care about victims Credit: Media News GNP Ltd But the couple are far from the only victims of Britain’s masked gangs. All over the UK, marauding kids are stealing cars and bikes, riding around on e-scooters, mocking passersby, fighting in the street and posting their antics to social media. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! It’s become an epidemic that has prompted cops to double down on anti-social behaviour as statistics reveal more than a million cases of neighbourhood disturbances are recorded each year. In a four-week long probe, The Sun’s investigations editor Grace Macaskill, spoke to balaclava-clad gang members, experts and the victims whose lives have been blighted by feral kids. While Pamela managed to plough through the gang, despite one brandishing a plank of wood, they managed to stop ex-fire brigade watch commander Robin and threatened to ‘stave’ his head in unless he handed over his bike. Pamela, of Bramley, Leeds, said: “Rob is 6ft 5in and 18 stone and I don’t think these kids noticed that until he got off the bike and threatened to take them on. The gang go ‘tooled up’ with weapons when they steal bikes Credit: GNP media A balaclava kid is detained by cops in a Facebook post that got 10k plus likes Credit: Supplied “They surrounded Rob and the leader took off his balaclava, squaring up to him. Rob said ‘let’s go then’. He eventually just got back on his bike and cycled off. “We later spoke to some witnesses who said they’d seen what happened and noticed that one of the gang was carrying a machete.” The couple’s lucky escape earlier this month has sped up a decision to move to Spain and get away from “lawless” Britain. Pamela said: “We’ve had enough of this country. This is the last straw. “It’s in a real state and feels totally lawless. “These gangs are totally out of control. In my day if you ever behaved like that you’d get a clip around the ear from your parents and you’d never do it again, but these kids don’t seem to care. “They’re willing to use violence to get what they want. I don’t think the police take them on enough either.” Just one look at social media shows just how impacted Brits are by teen gangs. Cassandra was in the middle of this Facebook live when a gang hit Credit: Jam Press/@CrimeLdn CCTV captured the moment the thugs attacked Roy Credit: SWNS In Keighley, West Yorks, a police Facebook post about the arrest of one wayward kid got a staggering 10,000 plus likes. Yet those behind the masks couldn’t care less. When the Sun spoke to one group of lads, one teen said: “It’s no face, no case innit?” He showed a serrated weapon he carries down the front of his trousers as part of a street gang causing mayhem in one northern town. He said he used the weapon for “self defence”, adding: “Say we rob somebody’s bike and they come up to us, this is for protection.” The lads, aged 16 and 17, told how Nissans and Audis are their stolen car of choice and how they goad cops into police chases before ‘decamping’ – dumping the car and running away. We can also reveal why cops are so worried about taking action. The kids are so confident of not being caught or identified that they engage in utterly brazen tactics. The teenage yobs had no idea Roy was an ex-judo champion Credit: Adrian Sherratt Roy in his younger days as a black belt Credit: Adrian Sherratt – Commissioned by The Sun Mum-of-three Cassandra Baker, 49, was livestreaming details of a charity walk on Facebook when masked thieves nicked her phone in Bromley, London. Bikes could be heard shrieking before viewers saw a kerfuffle and the broadcast was brought to an abrupt end in December 2023. Cassandra, who was with her autistic 12-year-old daughter and one-year-old son at the time, said a tracker revealed her phone had ended up in north London. Cassandra, who lives in the south east area of the city, said: “I couldn’t even believe it – it wasn’t even late at night. “It happened around teatime when we were walking near Bromley Common. My daughter gave chase but she has musculoskeletal issues. They were taunting her, shouting ‘run faster’.” It’s clear that the masked louts have no fear of authority. Social media posts show them taunting police, driving past at high speeds, as well as trashing cars and destroying property around the UK. So what is the answer to the menace facing ordinary hard-working Brits? Of course, there are those who fight back – but vigilantism runs the risk of police prosecution or someone being seriously hurt. One gang took on more than they could handle when they picked on an 80-year-old judo expert. Roy Muller claims cops didn’t do enough to tackle the kids who turned up at his semi-detached home in Great Barr, Birmingham, armed with metal bars and chains. The case hit national headlines back in August 2022, when police officers told Roy, who was recovering from a heart attack, to stop calling them. After a public outcry, police, in conjunction with the council, installed CCTV cameras on the street, in addition to Roy’s own security cameras. Many of the thugs are armed with weapons – and say they are not afraid to use them Credit: Yappapp Nottingham could become the first city centre to ban face coverings Credit: Paul Tonge But the persistent abuse didn’t stop until Roy – who holds a black belt in Judo – fought back with one of the youths who threatened him with a metal bar. Roy said: “They thought they were picking on a little old man, someone they thought was vulnerable. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know I am a former judo champion and despite having had a heart attack, I still know how to defend myself. “The police had told me not to approach them, because they might have knives, but I wasn’t prepared to be a prisoner in my own home any longer. “One day, I managed to catch one of the older teens, who was masked up, with a metal chain. He tried to kick the front door in, but when I opened the door, he fell over. “His friend tried to hit me with a metal chain; it grazed my ear leaving it bleeding, but I unleashed a few of my best moves on the ringleader. “I won’t be intimidated in my own home. I had to stand up to them. “They ran off, and I haven’t been bothered by them again.” Roy still doesn’t know why the gang victimised him or why the abuse went on for so long, but says he thinks he seemed like an easy target. Pensioner Sharon says she feels intimidated by the gangs Credit: Paul Tonge He said: “Back in my day, parents would have sorted their children out, but nowadays they don’t even seem to know where their kids are, let alone what they’re up to.” While society reels, youth workers are keen not to write-off the kids. Canon John Ellis runs the Shalom Youth Club on one of the country’s most deprived estates, the East Marsh in Grimsby. He said: “What most of these kids are missing is role models – people to look up to. “They’re essentially not bad kids.” The club has been a massive hit in the area with three generations of family attending. Yet it struggles for funding. Rev Andy Tappin, who also works with the youngsters, said the youngsters are looking for an adrenaline hit in a world where they are maligned and often come from poverty-striken families. He said: “Where do these kids find people to look up to? What’s the alternative for them? “Are you going to tell them to sign up to an agency which sends them to a factory at 6am, only for them to be told they’re not needed? “There are fish factories around here but it’s short term contracts, which can be really disheartening. “Apprenticeships aren’t what they once were and you now need good qualifications to get one. A lot of the kids we see aren’t school shaped. “There are so few opportunities and the fact is that, if your parents deal drugs you’re likely to become a drug dealer but if your parent is a doctor you’re more likely to be a doctor. “We need a total rethink on education and tap into what these kids are good at. Some might not be great at maths but give them a car engine and they know their way around it. What are they good at? We need to harness their strengths.” Meanwhile, Nottingham looks set to become the first UK city to ban the balaclava in a bid to tackle kids who have taken over the city streets, riding on e-bikes, raiding stores and terrifying locals. Business owners and shop staff are broadly in favour of restrictions on face concealment – but there are others who believe it pointless because the gangs simply don’t care. Shop assistant Lucy White, 20, who works in shoe retailer Footasylum on Nottingham’s busy Clumber Street, said: “We have all kinds of problems with kids wearing balaclavas. “They come in wearing them and will take things like accessories, bucket hats, and so on. I think they feel invincible because their identity is a secret. “They know that we can’t give the police a description.” Khuram Yasin, 38, a manager at electronics shop iMobile, said: “If people can legally cover their faces in our store, what’s the point of having CCTV?” The thugs have left older people in particular feeling vulnerable. Pensioner Sharon Jodkowski, 64, said: “It’s really intimidating to see a big group of people with their faces completely covered. “The city centre is a scary place nowadays, it is not like it used to be.” Market trader Shaun Hertley, 49, said he didn’t think that unmasking the gangs would “make a difference”, while local resident Craig Miller, 62, said: “What would be achieved? “Who would enforce it? If you stop people wearing balaclavas they would just put their hoods up, or scarves over their faces.” The Government has ploughed millions into tackling crime and social media platforms have been warned they face being fined up to £70,000 for failing to act on knife and weapon content on their platforms. A spokesperson said: “As part of our mission to halve knife crime within a decade, we’ve taken more than 63,000 blades off Britain’s streets and knife homicides have fallen by 27% – to the lowest level in a decade. “We’ve brought in a new offence so individuals bent on violence face 7 years in prison, and have put a further 3,100 police into our neighbourhoods to tackle criminality.” But the gangs still persist and as police up and down the country struggle to even identify hooded kids, one force appears to be winning the battle. Social media fightback There can be little double that social media is helping fuel the antics of the hooded gangs. The kids we spoke to admitted they were ‘inspired’ by the antics of others who post on sites like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. TikTok figures show that the platform removed 3.1million UK posts that breached all community guidelines in the first three months of this year. Just over 99.1 percent that related to crime were taken down before they were officially reported. It says it bans accounts that promote or glorify off-platform violence or threaten public safety. Snapchat says it has an in-house legal enforcement team which works 24/7 to help cops investigating crime. The platform told us they can slap permanent bans on accounts that post harmful content. It says it has extra safety measures in place for teens. Meta declined to comment. Cops in Plymouth launched Operation Hypssop last year – identifying masked-up kids who terrorise people on Surron off-road bikes, mopeds and e-scooters. They are aware kids are often reeled in by county-lines gangs willing to buy bikes for vulnerable youngsters to deliver drugs and have taken a ‘child centred’ approach to policing the problem. They track down kids involved and stage interventions, whether it be offering more support to families or getting youngsters involved in sports. While it might sound like a soft approach, it’s made massive gains. Inspector Tim Hinde, who runs partnerships with other agencies in Plymouth, said: “It’s not just a case of putting your blue lights on and chasing somebody. “Certain forces, like the Met, have capabilities of pursuit and have advanced motorbikes but other forces don’t. “These kids don’t have their faces obscured every minute of the day and we use old fashioned policing methods like CCTV , door cams and drones to trace them. “Our main issue is the anti-social behaviour that comes with the problem, but we are becoming aware of more sinister uses such as county lines and that goes hand-in-hand with other crimes.” The force that fought back It's 5pm on a Friday night and all over Britain school kids are finishing for half term. At Grimsby west police station in Lincolnshire, two cops on bikes and a response car head out on Operation Yellowfin to take illegal e-bikes and scooters off the roads. It’s part of a crackdown that yields two scooters within minutes of each other on a main drag in the town. On one street, a teenage lad his his girlfriend speed off on an e-scooter as officers pull over to try to question them. Operational lead Darian Hullett reckons they must be motoring along at 40mph. As he puts on his blue lights, the pair drive over a nearby park and, after alerting the motorbike officers, we speed to the back of a factory where they might emerge. There’s no luck until we spot them in a nearby street but the area is like a rabbit warren and they soon vanish again. This is the frustration for police who have limited resources for such operations and are left exasperated when e-bikes and scooters are able to escape through parks and down narrow lanes. The officers on motorbikes can’t be everywhere at once and squad cars are too big to get through narrow gaps. But there is more than one way to skin a cat and Chief Inspector Claire Jacobs tells me how the force has teamed up with youth justice, the local council and community projects to target and educate anti-social teens. She said: “She said: “We need to do more than arrest people – we need to stop the cycle. “We go into schools to talk to children about e-bikes and scooters and use orders such as public space protection orders to ban specific behaviour in areas where there are problems. “Designing out crime to prevent illegal vehicles driving down roads and in open areas is key such as fencing and gating of identified areas. “It is a minority within the community that cause the majority of the issues.” It is illegal to ride privately owned e-scooters in public, on pavements, road or parks. E-bikes should be pedal powered only and cut out at 15.5mph Stores like Halfords and Currys make it clear what the law is – but it doesn’t stop people from spending thousands of pounds on transport that is designed for use on private land only. Inspector Hinde said: “We’ve gone from lots of incidents and thefts in the three-figures to one or two and sometimes zero a day. “It does work.” Whatever the solution, there can be no doubt that it will take a renewed effort to stop the gangs taking over Britain’s streets – for everyone’s sake. For more on balaclava gangs sign up to Sun Club to read our exclusive probe.