Protecting the wealthy from St Pancras luggage snatchers: Chauffeurs are being trained to keep their clients safe as security staff admit they're 'powerless' to stop bag thieves

Chauffeurs ferrying wealthy clients around London are being trained how to keep their passengers safe at one of the capital's busiest transport hubs, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Regarded as one of the UK's most iconic stations, King's Cross and its neighbours, St Pancras International and King's Cross St Pancras Underground, have become a hotspot for Algerian gangs, luggage thieves and phone snatchers.

Just last week, footage emerged of a smartly dressed thief brazenly snatching an influencer's Louis Vuitton suitcase – worth an estimated £2,600 – from a taxi rank outside the stations. 

Elsewhere outside St Pancras, an Algerian gang stole £600,000 worth of jewellery from the Abu Dhabi royals, ex-F1 driver Jenson Button's wife had £250,000 of jewellery and handbags nabbed and a classical musician's oboe was snatched too.

King's Cross is the second most crime-ridden train station in the country, with 1,479 offences last year, only behind nearby London Euston (1,536), while St Pancras International is fourth with 1,035 offences. King's Cross St Pancras is both the busiest and most dangerous Tube station on the London Underground.

When the Mail visited this week, it was a scene of chaos with passengers from the Eurostar, six London Underground lines and National Rail services weaving through beggars before converging on taxi ranks surrounded by makeshift homeless camps.

Security staff told us they are powerless to stop thieves stealing from tourists, while police officers admitted mass confusion over the 'grey zone' riddled with crime outside the stations. 

This has led to victims being caught up in 'jurisdiction' red tape over whether British Transport Police (BTP) or the Metropolitan Police are responsible for responding to criminal activity around the stations.

Footage this weeks showed a man brazenly swiping a Louis Vuitton suitcase from an influencer outside St Pancras International

When the Mail visited this week, passengers were weaving through homeless beggars, adding to the chaos

Video shows Algerian thief Hicham Labidi lingering near the boot of taxi before grabbing a blue suitcase outside St Pancras Station in London last year

Tracking down someone to shed light proved extremely challenging. When I eventually found a police officer patrolling King's Cross, he admitted: 'I'll be honest, I don't really know. It's a very grey area.' 

The next security guard I approached fobbed me off to a different BTP officer who – before I even spoke – responded 'I'm off duty' and walked away. 

Meanwhile, when I asked a Transport for London (TfL) officer patrolling the streets for crime what he would do if he saw a theft, he said: 'I would report it but I'm not going to get involved. I can't arrest him, I can't detain him.

'I could detain him for police under Citizen's Arrest, but we're not going to do that.' 

Over the summer, classical musician Peter Facer laid bare the frustration of being a victim of theft in the 'grey zone'.

The 38-year-old, who had his oboe snatched in a cruel distraction theft outside St Pancras International on June 14, said he quickly tracked down two BTP officers, but they told him it was a matter for the Met Police. 

'To be honest, they were quite infuriating,' he told a newspaper. 'As soon as I told them that I was maybe two steps outside the station, they said, "Oh, no, that's not our responsibility because we only cover train stations and you were just outside the station." 

'I said: "It happened three minutes ago. They're probably still in the station somewhere". But I had to log the theft online with the Met Police.' 

When we approached both forces for comment, the BTP said it was not their 'jurisdiction' and the Met said it was 'unable to provide a comment' for a theft not involving violence. 

Responding to the latest influencer's Louis Vuitton suitcase theft, BTP initially said it was investigating but later told the Mail it has now been taken up by the Met. 

At King's Cross this week, families appeared overwhelmed attempting to navigate on their iPhones while trying to keep an eye on children, large suitcases, designer handbags and shopping bags. Many were also forced to fend off approaches from beggars inside and outside the stations.

Taxi drivers and private chauffeurs laid bare the tactics thieves use, including waiting for tourists to get in the back of the car and put their seatbelts on before opening the boot and snatching the luggage in a matter of seconds.

One chauffeur, Adnan, even revealed how drivers must undergo training for dropping off passengers at King's Cross. 

He told the Mail: 'King's Cross is part of the training where they say you have to be extra careful because people are taking luggage from the vehicles. 

'Once the [passenger] gets in the car, you have to be careful. That is part of the training. They could be TV stars, movie stars, wealthy people, high net worth individuals.

'What happens is someone will get in the car and without them knowing somebody will open the boot and take the bags out. This area is known for that.

'We've got a setting on our Mercedes key, so they can't open the boot.'

The driver added: 'It's a bed and breakfast tourist area for European people. Everyone is walking around on their phone. Everyone wants to be a social media influencer.

'It's an international location, they should have more police here. Where are the cameras? I've not seen any.' 

An Algerian migrant, Bilal Arbaoui, 32, who stole a suitcase containing jewellery worth up to £175,000 by telling his victim her trousers were dirty was jailed

Last year, Algerian thief Mourad Aid swiped a suitcase containing £250,000 worth of jewellery and designer handbags from Jenson Button's wife outside St Pancras while the former Formula 1 driver was helping a chauffeur load luggage into the car. 

Meanwhile in June, an Algerian gang stole £600,000 worth of jewellery from members of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family outside St Pancras after they arrived on the Eurostar.

Last week, another 'devious' Algerian thief, Bilal Arbaoui, 32, was jailed for stealing a gold suitcase containing £175,000 worth of items outside St Pancras. 

And in March, a police officer was seen borrowing a bike to chase down Algerian thief Hicham Labidi, who stole a suitcase from the boot of a taxi outside St Pancras.

Keith Oliver, who has been a London cab driver for 30 years, said there is an 'air of chaos' around King's Cross.  

'It's rife here, it really is. I warn all the passengers to keep their cases close to them. They lift the bonnet up and take the cases. 

'The guy comes round to sort the front out and then they go behind, lift the boot up and take a case or two.

'It's been like this quite a while. It's just chaos around this area.'

The 63-year-old added: 'People get distracted easily, it's a distraction crime; while they are dealing with fares, that's when they take the luggage.

'You've always had that element around King's Cross of drug takers and desperate people. They are just trying to... make a free living out of someone else.'

Brittny Button, Jenson Button's wife, had more than £250,000 worth of items stolen by a crook after alighting the Eurostar

Mourad Aid swiped Brittny Button's suitcase containing valuable jewellery and designer bags

Sahil, a shop assistant at iSmash – a phone repair store which faces the taxi rank where the Louis Vuitton suitcase was stolen – told the Mail: 'It is always busy in this area. You can run easily, you can hide.

'I don't see police most of the time, I will be very blunt about it. I don't see any security here.

'In the last six months, there have been quite a few incidents that have happened in the shop - people opening the store, grabbing things and just running off.

'I have seen customers coming in and getting things repaired and they don't pay, they run away.

The 27-year-old added: 'If it's happening in broad daylight, then it's going to be more of a problem in the evenings.'

Sahil said the shop don't see the point in reporting the crime, as the accessories stolen usually cost around £10 to £15 each.

A Eurostar member of staff said: 'We have issues here all the time. The tourists are walking out in a new environment. They are so many people coming to and from London and Paris. They are an easy target.' 

When the Mail visited this week, there were several homeless men both inside and outside the station, adding to the air of chaos as passengers disembarked off the Eurostar, trains and Tubes.

We witnessed them gathering in groups and shouting at each other at the taxi rank where tourists flock to after stepping off trains. 

King's Cross, for many years notorious as a red light zone with streets occupied by prostitutes, skeletal heroin addicts and kerb crawlers, has lately been celebrated as 'gentrified'.

But homeless people still now sit and slump, post signs begging for donations and leave human waste on the streets beside the historic transport hubs and new tech HQs.

The current scenes come as a contrast to this century's 'gentrification' of King's Cross with the arrival of multinationals including Google and canalside developments such as Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard boasting luxury brand stores.

Made In Chelsea star Yasmine Zweegers said she felt 'violated' after thieves stole her bag in a scam outside King's Cross

James Bore, a chartered security professional, told the Mail: 'The environment at King's Cross is perfect for opportunity and distraction thefts.

'Very large numbers of people moving through a crowded area, often wrangling luggage, finding directions, looking at phones, getting in and out of taxis, or trying to corral tired children.

'That's a perfect setting for opportunistic theft – grabbing a suitcase while someone's dealing with a crying toddler, opening the boot of a taxi as someone gets in, or picking a pocket as someone stares at their phone to plan a route.'

As well as King's Cross and St Pancras International ranking among the most crime-ridden stations, King's Cross St Pancras Underground has also been plagued with crime.

Recorded incidents at the Tube station have more than doubled from 528 (2022) to 1,100 (2024) in three years. 

BTP say that they are responsible for any incidents that take place on Network Rail property, while the Met covers anything outside of this, such as Pancras Road.

A spokesman said: 'We run regular operations throughout the year at stations and on trains, targeting hotspot locations for theft and robbery to catch offenders and put them before the courts. These include officers patrolling the network, both in plain clothes and uniform.'