victim.
See On the Bottle , the Bull , the Smother game
TEA LEAF
----
If you are at it , then
the chances are better than good that you’re a tea leaf . In the
original cockney rhyming slang, a tea leaf means a thief. There are many forms of
thieving or ‘tea-leafing’, from pickpocketing to commercial burglary. In some
‘manors’, or districts, being a tea leaf is a fairly honourable profession, and
sometimes a way of life and a means of survival. In the 1800s there were lots of
‘thieves’ dens’, particularly in London, where all the tea leafs lived with their
families and from where they would set out to rob the rich, or the richer. Some
areas of London still have a hangover of that reputation today and are viewed as
‘criminal manors’, such as Bermondsey in South London, or the Cali (Caledonian Road) in North London. Former assistant commissioner in charge of the
CID Gilbert Kelland states in
Crime in London
that, from the 1970s until
the ’90s, ‘ninety-seven per cent of the armed robberies committed in England were
carried out by a small group of robbers from one small corner of South London.’
See the Cali
TILL-HOPPING
----
Till-hopping is a
specialist form of theft involving the robbing of cash registers in large shops and
department stores. I met a fella called Kevin while on remand in HMPLatchmere House in 1976 who went on to become one of the most prolific
till-hoppers in Europe in later life, serving time in Germany, France, Switzerland
and the UK for theft of cash from tills. When Kevin was twelve years old he
sometimes worked in his uncle’s shop and noticed how simple the key to the till was.
He decided to try his uncle’s till key in the till of another local shop and, when
the owner was distracted, he managed to open the till and walk out with a handful of
half-crowns. That was the start of a criminal career that has spanned almost four
decades and shows no sign of slowing down. Kevin discovered that till locks could be
opened by any of three generic types of till key, and that was him off and running.
His first modus operandi was to walk into a supermarket and make his way to the
staff changing room, where he would steal a shop coat with the store’s logo on it.
He’d then slip on the shop coat, make his way to one of the tills that wasn’t being
used, casually unlock it and help himself to the cash inside. In a busy supermarket,
nobody would even give him a second look; the shop uniform was as good as
camouflage. He’d keep the shop coats he stole to use in different branches of the
same shop. Kevin would hit five or six shops a day and was earning a nice few quid
from his endeavours, but it wasn’t long before the supermarkets started to notice
the thefts and decided to take steps. What you have to remember is that all this was
happening in the 1970s, before there was CCTV in every nook and cranny and when shop
security usually consisted of a series of mirrors set in strategic spots and a
retired copper as a less-than-invisible store detective. Eventually, one of the
major supermarkets set up a watch on its unused tills and Kevin was nabbed
red-handed removing a bundle of notes from the till.
Getting nicked was really no drama for
Kevin – he wasonly charged with theft and it was his first
offence. He was given a conditional discharge and walked out of the court determined
to become more professional – giving up his lucrative activities never even occurred
to him. As he perfected his operation, he recruited a couple of like-minded young
criminals from his small corner of South London and set about ripping off the cash
registers of the capital in a big way. Kevin would still use a shop coat and his jigglers (keys) to steal from the till, but with the help of
his two new partners in crime, he could now steal more than ever. His new method of
operation involved his partners either starting a
See On the Bottle , the Bull , the Smother game
TEA LEAF
----
If you are at it , then
the chances are better than good that you’re a tea leaf . In the
original cockney rhyming slang, a tea leaf means a thief. There are many forms of
thieving or ‘tea-leafing’, from pickpocketing to commercial burglary. In some
‘manors’, or districts, being a tea leaf is a fairly honourable profession, and
sometimes a way of life and a means of survival. In the 1800s there were lots of
‘thieves’ dens’, particularly in London, where all the tea leafs lived with their
families and from where they would set out to rob the rich, or the richer. Some
areas of London still have a hangover of that reputation today and are viewed as
‘criminal manors’, such as Bermondsey in South London, or the Cali (Caledonian Road) in North London. Former assistant commissioner in charge of the
CID Gilbert Kelland states in
Crime in London
that, from the 1970s until
the ’90s, ‘ninety-seven per cent of the armed robberies committed in England were
carried out by a small group of robbers from one small corner of South London.’
See the Cali
TILL-HOPPING
----
Till-hopping is a
specialist form of theft involving the robbing of cash registers in large shops and
department stores. I met a fella called Kevin while on remand in HMPLatchmere House in 1976 who went on to become one of the most prolific
till-hoppers in Europe in later life, serving time in Germany, France, Switzerland
and the UK for theft of cash from tills. When Kevin was twelve years old he
sometimes worked in his uncle’s shop and noticed how simple the key to the till was.
He decided to try his uncle’s till key in the till of another local shop and, when
the owner was distracted, he managed to open the till and walk out with a handful of
half-crowns. That was the start of a criminal career that has spanned almost four
decades and shows no sign of slowing down. Kevin discovered that till locks could be
opened by any of three generic types of till key, and that was him off and running.
His first modus operandi was to walk into a supermarket and make his way to the
staff changing room, where he would steal a shop coat with the store’s logo on it.
He’d then slip on the shop coat, make his way to one of the tills that wasn’t being
used, casually unlock it and help himself to the cash inside. In a busy supermarket,
nobody would even give him a second look; the shop uniform was as good as
camouflage. He’d keep the shop coats he stole to use in different branches of the
same shop. Kevin would hit five or six shops a day and was earning a nice few quid
from his endeavours, but it wasn’t long before the supermarkets started to notice
the thefts and decided to take steps. What you have to remember is that all this was
happening in the 1970s, before there was CCTV in every nook and cranny and when shop
security usually consisted of a series of mirrors set in strategic spots and a
retired copper as a less-than-invisible store detective. Eventually, one of the
major supermarkets set up a watch on its unused tills and Kevin was nabbed
red-handed removing a bundle of notes from the till.
Getting nicked was really no drama for
Kevin – he wasonly charged with theft and it was his first
offence. He was given a conditional discharge and walked out of the court determined
to become more professional – giving up his lucrative activities never even occurred
to him. As he perfected his operation, he recruited a couple of like-minded young
criminals from his small corner of South London and set about ripping off the cash
registers of the capital in a big way. Kevin would still use a shop coat and his jigglers (keys) to steal from the till, but with the help of
his two new partners in crime, he could now steal more than ever. His new method of
operation involved his partners either starting a
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