Express & Star

Knives, shotguns and sexual assaults: Crime-a-day reported in West Midlands bookies

A crime is reported at a bookmakers in the West Midlands almost every day - and the number has increased.

Published

They even include four sexual offences reported inside bookies in the region between 2012 and 2015.

The figures, released by West Midlands Police under a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed there were 354 crimes reported at bookmakers last year alone.

This is up from 307 in 2012, and 347 in 2013.

Information was provided for William Hill, Ladbrokes, and Coral premises in the West Midlands.

The figures are further broken down to show since 2012 there have been 256 incidents reported inside Ladbrokes premises in the region, 350 at William Hill, and 176 at Coral.

These include two sexual assaults reported at Ladbrokes last year, and one at a Coral in 2013.

While the figures cover a range of crimes, there have been no rapes or murders reported in bookmakers during the period covered by the FOI response.

In June this year a man was airlifted to hospital after being stabbed during a fight at the William Hill betting shop in Whitmore Reans.

Police descended on the Bargate Drive bookmakers' after getting reports a man in his 20s had been stabbed in the back just before 1pm.

In December 2013 and again in January 2014 two armed raids were carried out on the William Hill shop in Coventry Road, opposite Small Heath park in Birmingham.

Men believed to be carrying a shotgun wrapped inside a carrier bag ran into the bookmakers, in what police described as 'brazen, mid-afternoon robberies', and stole £270 and £370 during each raid.

And in 2013 a raider armed with a gun and knife threatened staff and demanded cash in a raid on a bookmakers in the Black Country.

Staff at the Queen's Road William Hill, in Smethwick, refused to hand over money when the man raided the shop on a Saturday night, and by the time police arrived he had fled empty-handed.

West Midlands Police was unavailable for comment.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.