A top chef has lamented the decline of London policing after thieves stole produce from his restaurant by thieves for what he believes is the 20th time.
Richard Wilkins, who runs 104 Restaurant in the capital’s plush Notting Hill, says police are yet to visit him more than 24 hours after a pair of brazen thieves stole soft drinks and pantry supplies from a storage area in broad daylight.
The Welsh chef reckons his business has been targeted by opportunist and organised thieves 20 times in the last four years.
Criminals have made off with all manner of stock – including pricey Scottish langoustines and a mincer he bought for the kitchen. One even used bolt cutters to steal his £2,000 bicycle last month.
Mr Wilkins, who has worked at Gordon Ramsay‘s Michelin-starred Pétrus and at the three-starred Maison Pic in France, says he has reported every theft to the Metropolitan Police – only for officers to close the case in days with no arrests.
And when his bike was stolen, police effectively let the thief get away after scrambling up some scaffolding. Officers decided the criminal would be put at too much risk if they tried to chase him.
‘London shouldn’t feel lawless but it is lawless when it comes to petty crime like theft,’ Mr Wilkins told MailOnline.
‘It doesn’t even matter the level of the theft – it could be this, it could be a £10,000 watch. People know they can get away with it so they do it. That’s why they come along at three o’clock in the afternoon and steal bikes.
Has your business been targeted by thieves? Email: jon.brady@mailonline.co.uk
Fine dining chef Richard Wilkins says his restaurant has been struck by thieves 20 times in the space of a few years
A pair of thieves were seen raking through a delivery that had been dropped off early on Wednesday – while carrying yellow carrier bags from Selfridges
Mr Wilkins standing beside one of the padlocked cupboards he asks delivery drivers to use when dropping off supplies – which has been kicked in by a prospective thief
‘A colleague in Soho came back from a daytime meeting and the lock on her bike had been 75 per cent cut through.
‘People are just doing things in broad daylight – and nobody stops them because they’re worried about being stabbed.
‘London has become a low trust society. You can’t leave things outside anymore because someone will steal it. I don’t wear anything nice out, my Apple Watch or anything, because it’s becoming a matter of life or death.
‘The core values of the police have been obliterated. It’s a failure of organisation.’
He opened the Michelin-recommended establishment, labelled London’s smallest fine dining restaurant, in March 2019.
Inspired by his time working in top Continental establishments, it serves offerings like Noir de Bigorre pork pâté en croûte, French guinea fowl and Kagoshima wagyu fillet.
A three-course dinner runs at £60 per person – with a tasting menu coming in at £120, or £150 with A5 wagyu, the highest standard of Japanese beef available.
A sample wine menu suggests bottles of 1992 La Tache Grand Cru can be served with dinner for £4,900.
And he hit the headlines not long after opening after engaging in a war of words on social media with Made In Chelsea and Buying London star Rosi Mai Walden, telling her ‘I’ve never even heard of you’ after she got in touch trying to blag a free meal.
Wednesday’s theft saw a crook in a t-shirt, gilet and baseball cap nonchalantly make off with a stack of Coca Cola as well as packets of butter. The stock had been left in a small wicker enclosure off of the main road, around the side of the restaurant.
An hour later in the CCTV, the same man returns with a pair of sunglasses on his head, what appears to be a bright yellow carrier bag from Selfridges and an accomplice, who reaches in to grab two cases of bottled water.
Thief number one then helps himself to another two cases – and checks a box labelled ‘wagyu beef’ to see if there were any prime Japanese cuts he could pinch before leaving.
The chef glibly captioned the footage: ‘Another lovely member of the public stealing our produce an hour ago. Police do nothing. So nice of them to come back and take the rest. Cheers guys.’
The wicker fencing had been used to store his bike – until it was stolen. Suppliers keep dropping stock off in the enclosure despite the fact he has padlocked cupboards he asks them to put their deliveries in.
Mr Wilkins is often alone as he prepares the restaurant for the day – so can’t keep a constant eye out for deliveries.
One of the thieves struck early on Wednesday, helping himself to a case of Coca Cola and stacks of unsalted butter
He then returned an hour or so later with an accomplice – both carrying Selfridges bags
One of the men makes off with two cases of bottled water, before the first thief steals two more for himself
The delivery had been dropped in a wicker enclosure despite Mr Wilkins asking suppliers to use the padlocked cupboards next door
Few suppliers do as he asks – not that it would matter. Not long ago, a thief smashed his way into the cupboards looking for stock and left empty-handed.
Mr Wilkins is yet to get the door fixed. He almost doesn’t see the point, since he expects it to be stoved in again anyway.
The chef reported the theft shortly after it happened but is yet to be visited by a police officer more than 24 hours on.
‘This happens every few weeks,’ he told MailOnline as he prepared for the evening’s dinner service on Thursday. ‘It seems to be the new normal.’
Next to him, a laptop shows a constant feed of the CCTV cameras, something he wishes he didn’t have to keep a constant eye on.
He continued: ‘If it isn’t that (someone stealing stock), it’s someone ripping the cupboards off their hinges and walking off.
‘It’s happened 20 times in the last three or four years and no-one has ever been arrested. You report it, you give them the CCTV, and they close the case.
‘There was a guy who took 20 minutes to break into the cupboards and just left two cases of water in there – and it costs us so much to get the door redone.’
Mr Wilkins does not suffer financially from the thefts so long as he gets a police report to submit to his suppliers – but being deprived of stock in a business that has few tables, and discerning customers, is hardly convenient.
The theft of his £2,000 bike on June 11, however, was the incident that took the cake.
Mr Wilkins had heard activity outside that day while preparing for service – and it was only an hour or so later that he realised his bike was gone, the lock shorn through with bolt cutters after the thief first tried to wrench a securing bracket from the wall.
By chance, he saw the thief outside an hour or so later – with no bike in sight – and confronted him.
Fleeing, the crook hopped over a wall towards Ladbroke Grove and vanished. A member of the public then saw him clambering up scaffolding.
The top chef opened 104 – branded London’s smallest fine-dining restaurant – seven years ago after working at several Michelin-starred eateries
Tasting menus at 104 with top-grade wagyu beef run at £150 – while the priciest bottle of red wine can cost £4,900 (pictured: Mr Wilkins inside his restaurant)
Mr Wilkins says he wants to see London policed better, rather than giving up on it altogether
Emergency services then cordoned off the street and tried to coax the crook down as he threw pieces of scaffold into the street.
As the clock hit midnight and the criminal refused to leave, Mr Wilkins went home, sure that he would wake up to good news.
Instead, he received an email from a police constable who told him the pursuit had been called off because of the risk that the thief might fall.
‘We couldn’t catch him,’ the officer said. There was no apology.
Mr Wilkins says his situation is endemic of the general experience of crime in the capital – where phone-snatching, ‘Rolex-ripping’ and bike theft is rife.
He deliberately uses a £140 Samsung smartphone – because the risk of having an upmarket device stolen is simply too great.
‘It’s the breakdown of society if it takes a member of the public to try to solve the crime themselves,’ he said.
‘I don’t want the world to be like Mad Max.’
He claims the Peelian principles – the ideals of modern British policing developed by Sir Robert Peel when he founded the Met Police – are effectively dead, and that the force is weighed down with bureaucracy.
His bike theft was first passed to an officer in Hammersmith who attended – before being sent to a ‘local’ officer in another area of London. In order to email in, he had to register for a ‘community portal’ website, and hasn’t heard back.
Earlier this month, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced a policing blitz in 20 town centres across the capital, with more uniformed officers on the streets.
Mr Wilkins, however, says he barely sees an officer at all – save for the occasional community support officer (PCSO), who don’t even have the power to arrest a suspected criminal.
And despite being stolen from time and again, the chef says he loves London, having aspired to move to the capital since he was a child. He wants to see the city strive for better, rather than give up altogether.
‘You’ve won the lottery being born in the UK but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t want to make things better,’ he said.
‘It’s not even about the money or having so many officers. It’s the organisation.
‘Restaurants can be a money pit – you can buy £10,000 chairs, hire triple the number of staff you actually need, but does that make it better? Not necessarily.
‘What makes a business a good business is running it efficiently, and I think it’s the same with the police. The whole organisation is discombobulated.
‘The idea is that people should be worried about being caught – and they’re not.
‘It makes criminals think they can do whatever they like. If they aren’t scared of getting caught they’re just going to be emboldened. There’s no detriment.’
He adds: ‘I love London. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to move here.
‘There is stuff here worth saving, worth fighting for.’
MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.
