There were scenes reminiscent of the silent movie comedies of the 1920s this lunchtime in the High Street as two large groups gathered around two cardboard tables outside Cafe Rio to attempt to sucker in the local public with shell-game scams. Bemused local market traders and other shoppers could see exactly what sort of a scam was going on, including the deployment of their spotters further up the street, hidden behind the market stall in front of Shanze Hairdressers, from where they could look out for the cops should they decide to arrive via the Mission Grove entrance at the Percy Ingles Corner. This is, of course, the closest egress to the High Street for a patrol car to arrive at the scene of the crime in front of Cafe Rio.

The Met, however, thought they were ahead of this game, choosing to arrive several hundred yards away, approaching from the Cranbrook Place end of the High Street, towards St James's Street. For a job that possibly needed up to 30 officers, as there were at least 20 people involved in these gangs, they had apparently sent one patrol car. It parked in the Mews area, but was obviously spotted by the lookouts covering that end of the street. This observer was able to enjoy the spectacle of the gangs dispersing into 'innocent' activities- pretending to look at various stalls along the market as they progressively melted away up the hill. Every trader in the street could see who they were, but the Met, who eventually made their uniformed and very visible way at walking pace up to the scene of the crime, were not only impotent, they did not even look like they were trying. After no more than five seconds appraising the scene, the two policemen turned round and walked back towards Cranbrook Place (the road that Baltika is on the corner of), with much laughter in their ears if they had chosen to listen.

This is an amusing little problem which has been going on for months,as local police have failed to stamp their authority on the area and deal with these organized criminal gangs. I did notice when I got to it, that the CCTV cameras had been turned to look up the street in the right direction for a change. Hopefully the footage will be have been recorded and will be analysed, because these people are turning up regularly these days.

Next time, (and there will be a next time: most traders reckoned the gang would be back in a few minutes) the police are going to have to be much more co-ordinated and really behave as if they mean to do their job properly: they need to turn the camera on earlier and actually look at what is going on in the pictures it transmits, as well as sending some plain clothes officers to clearly identify who is involved and then bring their uniformed men in from both directions. While at it, they could also think about finally acting against the Chinese pirate DVD and cigarette gang which openly frequents this stretch of the street on a daily basis with impunity.

The Keystone Cops act may be a light amusement at lunchtime for some, but it demonstrates why investors will be thinking very carefully about whether or not to be bringing new business into the area: their due diligence will show that the police are known by these and other criminal gangs not to have a sufficient grip on organized crime. Such criminals consider they have little to fear: this is something that should concern honest folk very much.