Back on the beat:  ATM smash and grab robberies

It is, amazingly, over half a century since Fagin told his innocent — not for long — charges in Oliver that “You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two”.

Those young thieves relied on stealth and deftness of touch to survive in the dog-eat-dog London of another time. Their lightness of hand could not be more different to the direct action gangs using building machinery to rip ATM machines from walls in quiet towns and villages.