TJ's Trading Post in Cricklewood was run by police as part of Operation Gemini Photograph: Observer
Police have been accused of luring young people to commit crime after a "honey trap" pawn shop staffed by undercover officers was used to trade stolen goods.
More than 100 people are believed to have been convicted, many for illegally trading passports and driving licences, at the covert Scotland Yard store in Cricklewood, north London.
Lawyers have condemned the ploy, claiming it may have encouraged young people to commit offences by giving the impression that they could make easy money by trading ID documents at the shop.
Up to half of those convicted, they believe, had no serious history of criminality and some of those convicted sold their own passports or those of consenting relatives for up to £200 at the store, called TJ's Trading Post.
Jennifer Twite, policy adviser at Just for Kids Law, a legal charity that helps young people caught up in the criminal justice system, said: "It concerns me that this operation may have encouraged people to commit crime, which is damaging both to society and to those who may not have otherwise ever received a criminal record.
"Particularly unfortunate were those cases where people were selling their own passports or those who had never been in trouble before."
Shauneen Lambe, executive director of Just for Kids Law, added that the operation was costly to the taxpayer but that also a criminal record would limit job prospects for the young people who had been caught.
"I believe a police force should exist to prevent crime, not create it. But this use of police resources is concerning to me not only as a lawyer for young people but also as a taxpayer."
Lambe, whose early career was spent fighting death row cases in the US alongside campaigning lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, added: "The cost for imprisoning these people is likely to run into the millions let alone the increased costs of criminalising people who will now struggle, if they didn't before, to get employment. It seems to me to be a singular action driven by the police to show statistical success."
David Wilson, professor of criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at Birmingham City University, said: "I hope this has not been an attempt to create better clear-up statistics. We need to prioritise crimes that do the most damage to communities – do they really feel this was the best use of police time and resources?"
Police masqueraded as staff in the store for 12 months from February 2011 as part of Operation Gemini, which was designed to tackle "high levels of acquisitive crime" within the north London areas of Child's Hill and Barnet.
Inside, TJ's Trading Post was wired with CCTV and recording equipment, with the vast majority of those subsequently charged pleading guilty, according to their lawyers.
Operation Gemini was a component of Operation Galaxy, set up in October 2010 to identify and prosecute burglars in Barnet. In August, the Met announced that the operation had resulted in the arrest of 27 people during dawn raids across the north of the city.
Although the Met does not discuss the frequency, type or location of similar undercover operations, the tactic has been used successfully before. In a £500,000 sting codenamed Operation Peyzac, undercover officers staffed a fully-operating rap and hip-hop music store whose private back room was used to carry out deals with drug and gun sellers.
Peyzac resulted in a total of 37 armed criminals and drug dealers, including 30 gang members, being jailed for a total of more than 400 years following the operation in the shop, called Boombox, in Edmonton, north London.
Wilson said that usually such elaborate undercover operations were, as with Operation Peyzac, reserved for tackling "serious crime"; he cited the routine success of undercover officers infiltrating internet chatrooms to catch paedophiles. Lawyers agree the two operations are not comparable because one targeted armed criminals while Operation Gemini, according to Lambe, appeared to end up targeting "low-hanging fruit".
More than 100 people are believed to have been convicted, many for illegally trading passports and driving licences, at the covert Scotland Yard store in Cricklewood, north London.
Lawyers have condemned the ploy, claiming it may have encouraged young people to commit offences by giving the impression that they could make easy money by trading ID documents at the shop.
Up to half of those convicted, they believe, had no serious history of criminality and some of those convicted sold their own passports or those of consenting relatives for up to £200 at the store, called TJ's Trading Post.
Jennifer Twite, policy adviser at Just for Kids Law, a legal charity that helps young people caught up in the criminal justice system, said: "It concerns me that this operation may have encouraged people to commit crime, which is damaging both to society and to those who may not have otherwise ever received a criminal record.
"Particularly unfortunate were those cases where people were selling their own passports or those who had never been in trouble before."
Shauneen Lambe, executive director of Just for Kids Law, added that the operation was costly to the taxpayer but that also a criminal record would limit job prospects for the young people who had been caught.
"I believe a police force should exist to prevent crime, not create it. But this use of police resources is concerning to me not only as a lawyer for young people but also as a taxpayer."
Lambe, whose early career was spent fighting death row cases in the US alongside campaigning lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, added: "The cost for imprisoning these people is likely to run into the millions let alone the increased costs of criminalising people who will now struggle, if they didn't before, to get employment. It seems to me to be a singular action driven by the police to show statistical success."
David Wilson, professor of criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at Birmingham City University, said: "I hope this has not been an attempt to create better clear-up statistics. We need to prioritise crimes that do the most damage to communities – do they really feel this was the best use of police time and resources?"
Police masqueraded as staff in the store for 12 months from February 2011 as part of Operation Gemini, which was designed to tackle "high levels of acquisitive crime" within the north London areas of Child's Hill and Barnet.
Inside, TJ's Trading Post was wired with CCTV and recording equipment, with the vast majority of those subsequently charged pleading guilty, according to their lawyers.
Operation Gemini was a component of Operation Galaxy, set up in October 2010 to identify and prosecute burglars in Barnet. In August, the Met announced that the operation had resulted in the arrest of 27 people during dawn raids across the north of the city.
Although the Met does not discuss the frequency, type or location of similar undercover operations, the tactic has been used successfully before. In a £500,000 sting codenamed Operation Peyzac, undercover officers staffed a fully-operating rap and hip-hop music store whose private back room was used to carry out deals with drug and gun sellers.
Peyzac resulted in a total of 37 armed criminals and drug dealers, including 30 gang members, being jailed for a total of more than 400 years following the operation in the shop, called Boombox, in Edmonton, north London.
Wilson said that usually such elaborate undercover operations were, as with Operation Peyzac, reserved for tackling "serious crime"; he cited the routine success of undercover officers infiltrating internet chatrooms to catch paedophiles. Lawyers agree the two operations are not comparable because one targeted armed criminals while Operation Gemini, according to Lambe, appeared to end up targeting "low-hanging fruit".
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