Engineer jailed for blowing up Ulez camera with homemade bomb

An anti-Ulez activist who claimed he “didn’t actually do anything wrong” by exploding a camera with a homemade bomb has been jailed for 15 years.

Retired electrical appliances engineer Kevin Rees, 63, sparked a counter-terrorism investigation when he detonated explosives in the Ulez camera in Willersley Avenue, Sidcup, south London, at about 6.45pm on 6 December 2023.

The improvised explosive device (IED) damaged cars and property up to 100 metres away, with shrapnel striking the outside of a child’s bedroom.

Rees was convicted in January after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court of one count of causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

On Friday he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“It was miraculous that nobody was killed or seriously injured in the large explosion caused by Rees,” said Detective Chief Superintendent James Derham, who leads local policing in the Bexley area.

“He showed a complete disregard for the welfare and safety of the people who live in, or were travelling through, the area at the time of the explosion – all because he was unhappy with the Ulez scheme.

“CCTV from a bus travelling down the road at the time shows how it narrowly missed the blast of debris by seconds.”

The Ulez scheme, which requires drivers to pay a daily charge based on how polluting the emissions from their vehicle are, faced local opposition after it was expanded to cover all of London in 2023.

Cameras are used by Transport for London (TfL) to monitor the cars that enter and exit the zone, triggering fines for motorists who have not paid the daily charge.

During the trial, Rees told the court he “strongly opposed” the Ulez scheme – and the mayor of London, Lord Sadiq Khan.

“I dislike him, dislike what he has done to London,” the defendant said.

A jury heard the investigation team identified that Rees had travelled in his Smart car from his home in Sidcup to Shuttle Close shortly after 6.20pm on 6 December 2023.

The Ulez camera was installed earlier that day, but in an unrelated incident had been cut down by another individual, who was also identified and convicted.

Rees walked the short distance from his car to the camera and then planted the device and lit a fuse, police said. He was then seen by a witness walking quickly away from the scene.

Rees was identified and was arrested on 18 December 2023 and his home was searched.

Detectives also analysed Rees’s social media activity and found he had posted numerous times about Ulez cameras and encouraged the damaging of them, the Met said.

Three homemade stun guns were found at his address.

On Friday, Rees was given a three-year sentence, to run concurrently, after he admitted three counts of having a prohibited weapon.

During the trial, the defendant denied all involvement in the incident, telling jurors he believed his arrest was linked to his participation in “anti-Ulez” groups on Facebook.

When he was arrested by counter-terror police on 18 December, Rees made reference to that explosion and asked officers if his arrest had “something to do with the anti-Ulez sites”.

“There was only one explosion that was on the news and that was the one in Sidcup,” he told the trial, before adding: “I assumed it was just the so-called Facebook police.

“People you hear being arrested for making bad or inappropriate comments on Facebook pages – that’s well-known, as it’s been on the news.

“The thing is, I didn’t actually do anything wrong.”

Rees told jurors he joined “anti-Ulez” Facebook groups and pages out of “boredom” and because it provided him with a sense of community.

Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s counter terrorism division, said: “This was not an act of protest or momentary vandalism.

“This was a deliberate and dangerous attack involving a homemade explosive device, carried out in a residential street and designed to destroy public infrastructure.

“Kevin Rees knowingly and intentionally placed an explosive device next to the Ulez camera, lit the fuse and retreated before the explosion, showing clear planning and an obvious disregard for the safety of others.

“Whatever his views on the Ulez scheme, Kevin Rees crossed a serious line by constructing a homemade bomb and detonating it in a public place.

“It was pure chance that no-one suffered serious injury or worse.

“The Crown Prosecution Service will always seek to prosecute dangerous offending of this nature and hopefully this conviction sends a clear message to other protesters considering taking the law into their own hands.”

Rees, of Harcourt Avenue, Sidcup, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday by Judge Anthony Bate.