CRIME ON THE HOME FRONT
LOOTING WAS RIFE
“The going rate for a sheet of forged clothing coupons on Oxford Street was £10 – around £400 today”
On one day in November 1940, 20 of the 56 cases listed for hearing at the Old Bailey concerned looting offences. The total number of cases for the four months of the Blitz – to the end of December – was 4,584. When the Café de Paris restaurant and nightclub in Piccadilly suffered a direct hit by the Luftwaffe in 1941, rescuers had to battle their way through looters who were allegedly fighting to tear rings and other jewellery from the dead revellers. There were many cases in which looters weren’t just criminals and members of the public: firemen, wardens and other members of the defence forces often joined in too.
RATIONING LED TO THEFTS
Some of the most significant and lucrative black-market activities centred on the long list of staple products subject to rationing. Food, petrol and clothing rationing
