Shops hit as muggers change their tactics

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The Met dealt with 45,803 robbery offences last year, up from 39,068 in 2004/5, a rise of almost 20 per cent, according to Ministry of Justice figures released today.

The increase was partly due to muggers switching tactics to attack businesses after police stepped up their efforts to tackle street robberies - as a result the number of muggings has levelled off.

But opposition parties said the Government's law and order policies were failing.

Shadow home secretary David Davis claimed that each year just four per cent of robberies in London - an average of 1,900 - ended with a conviction and he accused ministers of "sticking their heads in the sand" over the issue.

"This is an alarming increase in robbery and the shockingly low conviction rate shows just how complacent the Government is about it," he said.

And Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone called the figures "unacceptable". She said: "The steep rise over the past two years demonstrates that Labour's law and order policies are failing.

"The Government must focus resources on the police service by paying for new officers by scrapping the wasteful identity cards scheme."

The figures emerged just days after Met chief Sir Ian Blair said it was unacceptable that so many people caught with a weapon got off with a slap on the wrist.

The figures show that robbery increased in half of all London boroughs in 2006/7 - though Scotland Yard said robberies have decreased by 14 per cent so far this year compared to the same period last year.