Two brazen thieves who were caught rummaging through pubgoers’ bags in CCTV footage have been jailed.
Majazy Latif, 28, and 32-year-old Youcef Aliouat were spotted stealing a laptop at a bar on Cannon Street, east London, while the blissfully unaware victim stood nearby.
In footage released by City of London Police, the duo of ‘professional criminals’ spend some seven minutes going through punters’ belongings in front of oblivious bar staff.
After ordering a drink, Aliouat pulls a chair in front of the bags – which had been left on the floor near the bar – in a bid to hide his crimes.
He and Latif then proceed to scour through the customers’ possessions until they come across a laptop – which they remove and place into their own rucksack.
The final moments of the video show Latif shamelessly sipping his drink while strolling to another part of the venue with the laptop stashed in his bag.
It was later found that this was far from an isolated incident, with both men put behind bars this week for a string of thefts.
Latif was jailed for 23 months after pleading guilty to nine counts of theft between August 6 and September 25, 2025, in which he stole almost £15,000-worth of personal belongings.
And Aliouat was handed a jail term of 18 months for stealing nine laptops between 14 August and 6 October, 2025.
Police Constable Pradip Young said after the sentencing: ‘These are professional criminals, who took their time when preying on other people’s belongings and transferring valuables from their victims’ bags to their own.
‘The thieves operated with audacity, standing by the bar and committing their crimes while their victims were just nearby having a drink.’
‘Latif and Aliouat spotted an opportunity and calmly stole from others while blending in to look like other City drinkers.’
In another crime captured in CCTV footage, Aliouat was spotted stealing a laptop at a bar in Aldgate, east London, on August 6 last year.
He committed the crime with Mounir Ghilas, 28, who was jailed last year for 18 months, after pleading guilty to 18 counts of theft between August 5 and September 25.
Millions of pounds’ worth of items were stolen on the streets of London in 2025, with thieves targeting items such as phones, watches and jewellery.
But these crimes are not consigned to London’s most deprived areas. Criminals have begun venturing to the capital’s poshest regions – such as Mayfair and Westminster – in search of expensive goods.
Data collected by the Daily Mail in December revealed that 3,207 items worth upwards of £1,000 each were snatched last year.
It is estimated that the total price of those items that were stolen reaches more than £5million, with watches valued at as much as £30,000 among those to have been looted.
Westminster was identified as the biggest hotspot for every kind of theft, with 363 handbags, 309 watches and 104 jewellery items stolen in the central London borough between January 2024 and August 2025.
Some of the most high-profile victims of muggings in London in the past year include Bridgerton’s Genevieve Chenneour, Loose Women’s Christine Lampard and Jenson Button’s wife Brittny.
This crime wave is also being fuelled from overseas, with gangs of prolific thieves entering the UK from countries such as Algeria and Bulgaria to steal thousands of pounds’ worth of belongings from unsuspecting members of the public.
