Former Camden leader Sarah Hayward injured in attack by moped muggers in Kentish Town

The former leader of Camden Council was left bleeding when moped thieves tried to grab her phone but she bravely fought back.

King’s Cross cllr Sarah Hayward, who resigned as leader in April, was on her way to a council event in Camden Town yesterday after having lunch with a colleague in Kentish Town when she was attacked outside the Flaming Eights tattoo parlour on Castle Road.

“I was just checking my phone to find a business email when two people on a moped drove up,” Cllr Hayward told the Ham & High.

The person riding pillion attempted to grab her phone, but she managed to hold tight with both hands and the thieves rode off empty-handed - except for a chunk of Cllr Hayward’s finger.

“There was a lot of blood,” she said. “But several passers-by stopped to help me, including the foreman of a nearby building site.”

As she had not lost her phone, Cllr Hayward was at first reluctant to report the incident to the police, but she was persuaded to do so by the site foreman – and would now encourage other victims of robberies and attempted robberies to do the same.

“It’s about being a good citizen. Reporting these crimes helps police to build up a picture of who is committing these crimes,” she explained, adding that the moped her attackers rode had no number plates and was likely to have been stolen.

Moped thefts and what the police call moped-enabled crime – such as phone-snatchings – are on the rise in the capital, with a massive 600 pc increase since 2014. Though most moped muggings occur in Central London, where the streets are busier and people are less likely to be on their guard, there are signs that thieves are increasingly targeting Camden, Hampstead and Muswell Hill. Cllr Hayward warned people to be vigilant.

“I have never been particularly guarded when checking my phone on the street,” she said. “I would advise people to be careful and not to assume it won’t happen in a residential area.”