BBC Crimewatch Live: How we caught a robbery gang using dating apps to target victims

Yesterday morning, Detective Inspector Tom Lyons featured on BBC Crimewatch Live talking about how we caught a robbery gang who used dating apps to target their victims.

Five men were jailed in January for almost 80 years for a campaign of robberies committed in Birmingham and Derby.

Over the course of ten months, the men conspired, planned and committed robberies across Birmingham resulting in over £100,000 being stolen. They undertook the offences at Golden Hillock Park, in South Birmingham and in Derby city centre between 2023 and 2024.

These men, on a number of occasions, lured their victims to the offence locations for their own gain.

They used dating apps such as Grindr to invite victims to meet them at locations under the pretence they were meeting up with a legitimate person from the app, only to arrive and discover that person was a fiction.

The group of five also stole vehicles, house keys, and would terrify their victims with the threat of being stabbed. They used large weapons to substantiate these threats before leaving them stranded by taking their car keys, wallets and identification documents.

In most of these attacks the suspects concealed their identity with masks or face coverings or held their victims down with their faces in the mud to prevent them from being able to identify them.

Dating and romance scammers can lower their target’s defences by building an online relationship, then asking for larger and larger sums of money. Well-meaning men and women have both fallen victim to this. Find out more about dating and romance scams here:
https://www.westmidlands.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/fa/fraud/personal-fraud/dating-holiday-ticketing-fraud

The BBC Crimewatch feature takes an in depth look at our investigation into the robbery gang and how we pieced together different strands of evidence to get justice for the victims.

To watch the feature on BBC iPlayer visit: Crimewatch Live - Series 21: 10. Murder at Hebden Bridge - BBC iPlayer