The growing brashness of Britain’s criminals was highlighted yesterday after a police officer revealed he had been the victim of four offences in less than two hours.

John Cullen, 35, who works for the Specialist Crime Branch of Scotland Yard, had his car broken into, his bicycle stolen, was beaten up and then had his property vandalised in the space of 90 minutes.

At one point he arrested one of the culprits only for him to threaten him with a knife and run off.
“Everybody is a victim of crime, especially in London, even police officers,” he said. “For it to happen to me just shows how bad things are. Something has to be done.”

The crime spree, last Monday, started when Mr Cullen, a former rugby player and a policeman for 16 years, cycled to his house in Fulham, west London, at around 6pm.

As he arrived, his wife Emma, 27, an occupational therapist, explained that thieves had stolen the CD player and 10 CDs from their VW Golf parked outside. Shocked by this news, Mr Cullen flung his bicycle against the front of his house and rushed in to telephone his colleagues at the Metropolitan police.

For once he did not lock it. About 40 minutes later he re-emerged to find that his bicycle had been taken. Before he rang the police again he decided to go looking for the culprit himself. He jumped on his wife’s moped – her second, the first had been stolen eight months earlier- and began searching locally.

At around 7.20pm he spotted a youth riding his bike on the road outside Chelsea Harbour club. “I stopped and said: ‘What are you doing riding my bike?’ “, Mr Cullen said. “He just replied: ‘I didn’t steal it,’ pushed me away and tried to cycle off.

“I grabbed him and we both fell on the ground. I told him I was a policeman and that he was under arrest for stealing my bicycle.” But as Mr Cullen tried to scramble to his feet he was attacked from behind by two other youths.

“I felt a number of blows to the head and upper body. I ended up on my back. One of the boys was taking a run up and jumping on my chest and head. Luckily I still had my helmet on which probably saved me from even more injury. I managed to grab his foot and scrambled back on to my feet.”

“I took off my helmet and told them I was a police officer. Two of them ran off but the boy who had stolen my bike remained.
“He pulled his hood over his head, made as if he was going to pull a knife from his trousers and came at me. I backed off and he ran towards the moped where he kicked the wing mirror off before running away.” Mr Cullen, who suffered a bruised kidney and ribs and a bloodied nose in the attack, once again called the police. They arrived 10 minutes later.