A violent offender who carried out a spate of terrifying robberies and attempted robberies on London’s rail and Tube network has been jailed, following a British Transport Police investigation.

Teddy Kelt, 20, from Bower Close in Romford, was sentenced to 18 months at Inner London Crown Court on 5 November. The term will run consecutively to a three year and eight month sentence he is already serving for other matters. The court also imposed a Criminal Behaviour Order lasting until 2040, banning him from wearing a face covering on public transport, owning a phone not registered in his name, and placing strict limits on his rail travel across the country.

Kelt had earlier pleaded guilty to three robberies and three attempted robberies, alongside two public order offences, two counts of possessing a knife or bladed weapon in public, and common assault.

Over a four-day spree in December 2024, Kelt targeted passengers across the Underground and Elizabeth line, mainly young men and teenagers. On 4 December, he followed a 22-year-old man onto the platform at Mile End Underground station, claimed he had a knife and threatened to stab him if he called for help. After taking the victim’s phone, he searched his pockets, slapped him and pushed him to the ground before running from the station.

The following day, he approached a 16-year-old boy on a Jubilee line service and showed him a machete, demanding his phone and warning him not to report the robbery, threatening to find him at college if he did.

Two days later, Kelt attempted to rob three more people on a Northern line train towards Totteridge and Whetstone. He asked a 21-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy about a watch and issued threats, before confronting a 19-year-old passenger for his headphones and phone. He dropped his knife on the carriage floor and fled.

The next day, on 8 December, he threatened another man at Finchley Central Underground station, showing the handle of a knife in his waistband and forcing the victim to hand over his phone, laptop and iPad. Kelt then made the man leave the train with him at Tufnell Park, where he marched him into a shop and took more belongings, including headphones and a rucksack.

Later the same day, he attempted to rob a 17-year-old on an Elizabeth line train, again threatening to stab him. When other passengers intervened, he tried to punch one of them. On a separate Elizabeth line service soon afterwards, he attempted to rob another man and threatened to "slash his neck" before walking away. In total, the items stolen across the four days were worth nearly £4,000.

Kelt is already serving a sentence for an earlier spree of robberies and attempted robberies across Ilford, Gidea Park, Goodmayes, Bexleyheath and Seven Kings between 29 November and 9 December 2024. Officers identified him after a robbery at Gidea Park and arrested him at his home, where stolen phones and a coat taken from a victim were recovered.

Detective Sergeant Steven Ridpath-Mitchell said:

"Kelt is an exceedingly violent and dangerous individual who spent four days mostly targeting teenagers, threatening them at knifepoint or violently assaulting them, for his own benefit. I hope that this sentence provides some sense of closure to the victims after he put them through such an awful ordeal. He's shown no remorse for his actions, either refusing to be interviewed or providing no comment or reply. The threats that he made against innocent commuters, the frequency of the attacks in such a short time, and the violence he used to rob them of their belongings is frankly sickening. There is absolutely no tolerance for robbery on the railway network, and we have regular patrols on trains and in stations of uniformed officers alongside our specially trained plain-clothed officers to detect and deter robbery around the clock."

Anyone who is a victim of, or witness to, a robbery or any crime on the rail network is urged to report it by speaking to an officer or station staff, texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40. Call 999 in an emergency.

Image: British Transport Police