Have the ULEZ ‘Blade Runners’ struck again? Vandals go on wrecking spree hitting eight cameras in west London

Vandals have gone on a ULEZ camera wrecking spree in the latest bid to sabotage Sadiq Khan’s hated emissions scheme.

The cameras on eight streets in the upmarket west London district of Chiswick have had their wires cut in what appears to be a coordinated attack just weeks ahead of the scheme’s expansion into Greater London.

The cameras, operated by Transport for London, scan number plates to determine whether a vehicle meets the ULEZ emission standards, with drivers forced to pay a daily fee of £12.50 if they fall short.

This latest stunt follows a spate of attacks by furious motorists earlier this year – with the Met Police charging two men with smashing cameras in May.

The London Mayor is under increasing pressure to abandon the expansion of the controversial ‘drivers’ tax’ beyond the current inner city boundary.

The new zone is set to cover the entirety of Greater London when it comes into force on August 29 and will face no legal opposition after a High Court judge ruled earlier this week that the scheme was lawful.

This is not the first time that the cameras have been damaged as frustrations over the scheme have triggered Londoners to take matters into their own hands.

The Met has launched a ‘proactive’ investigation following 96 reported incidents of criminal damage across the capital and has charged two men about the attacks. 

Kingsley Hamilton, 44, of Beddington, near Croydon, was charged with criminal damage and going equipped while Joseph Nicolls, 42, of Sidcup, was charged with criminal damage and handling stolen goods, as well as aiding or abetting the destruction of, or damage to, property valued over £5,000. 

Elsewhere, a secret activist army has also begun vandalizing and stealing the hated ULEZ cameras.

The group nicknamed the ‘Blade Runners’, has vowed to remove ‘every single one’ of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras that catch out drivers using high-polluting vehicles across the capital.

One of the secretive Blade Runners, who used a balaclava to protect his identity, revealed he had stolen 34 ULEZ cameras himself but his group and others like them have taken down hundreds.  

He told MailOnline: ‘In terms of damage it’s way more than what [Khan and TfL] have stated. It’s at least a couple of hundred.

‘Snipping, damaging with hammers, painting, disabling on a circuit level, and removing. They are unbolted and they are snipped.

‘The tools they use to install them are the ones we use to remove them. We don’t want this. It’s a way to try to… restrict our movements.

‘F*** them. It will not happen because we haven’t done anything to deserve it.’

The Blade Runner added there were more than 100 blade runners in his group and that number was ‘increasing’, with people covering different areas across London.

He said they mainly targeted the ULEZ expansion area but also attacked the existing system too.

A TfL spokesperson said: ‘Vandalism on our network is unacceptable. All incidents are reported to the police for investigation.’

Chiswick is already included in the current ULEZ zone but Khan’s expansion plans would see it triple in size with new borders reaching Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, and Surrey.

The expanded zone will encompass five million more people – in a move that will create a headache for at least 200,000 people who own non-compliant vehicles.

There has been a widespread outcry at the London mayor’s plans to add to drivers’ bills during the cost-of-living crisis, which could cost some more than £3,000 a year.

This widely felt hatred was made apparent in the recent by-election in Uxbridge & South Ruislip which saw the Conservatives unexpectedly cling on to Boris Johnson’s old seat by less than 500 votes.

Labor leader Keir Starmer pinned the blame for Labour’s loss on ULEZ, while the Tories’ new Uxbridge MP Steve Tuckwell credited his victory to the unpopularity of the scheme as well.

The vote was widely seen as an effective referendum on the issue, and Sir Keir admitted it had forced him to seek talks with the London mayor, as he demanded Mr. Khan ‘reflect’ on the levy following the result

But, in a radio interview earlier this week, the Labour leader refused to say whether he thought the planned ULEZ expansion should still go ahead.

Despite the backlash, Sadiq Khan has vowed to press on with the expansion plans but he is now open to ideas of how to mitigate the financial impact of the £12.50 charge.

Sources close to the Mayor dismissed talk of a U-turn, earlier this week saying: ‘Sadiq remains committed to implementing Ulez but is happy to look at any new ideas for ways to mitigate the impact on Londoners without reducing the effectiveness of the policy on tackling air quality and climate change.

‘Sadiq still believes expanding the Ulez is the right thing to do to save the lives of Londoners and tackle the climate crisis.’

Critics argue that ULEZ will disproportionately impact poorer families who can’t afford to buy a new motor and need to commute to work every day.

Pensioners also fear being left stranded and unable to see their GP located inside the penalty zone if they want to avoid being charged.

Small businesses have also slammed the ULEZ expansion and even charities have said they might be forced off the roads because of it.

Neighbors living just yards apart on opposite sides of the clean air zone face starkly different fates, with some saying they will be slapped with a charge for simply leaving their homes, while those living a stone’s throw away are unaffected.

Hard-up Londoners have told MailOnline they have already had to shell out huge sums to buy new cars that comply with the scheme and they fear they are being priced out of the capital.

MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.