Posted on 12/02/2003 12:14:06 PM PST by lowbridge
Rock star and wife mugged
by RICHARD SIMPSON and ROSS LYDALL, Evening Standard
Phil Collins and his wife have been mugged while Christmas shopping with their young son in the West End.
The rock star was making a rare visit to London from his £10million home in Geneva with third wife, Swiss-born Orianne, 30, and two-year-old Nicholas.
The muggers snatched Orianne's handbag, which they stripped of cash and other personal belongings before dumping it in a backstreet.
Exact details of the attack remain uncertain.
The bag and what remained of its contents were found shortly afterwards by Westminster council "city guardians" who returned them to the family through the Swiss consulate.
The Collins family were attacked on Saturday afternoon.
They had been in London for the premiere of the children's film Brother Bear at the Warner West End in Leicester Square on Sunday night.
Former Genesis drummer Collins, 51, who is worth "115 million, wrote the film's soundtrack. He made no mention of the theft at the premiere.
The attack comes as the Met launches a crackdown on criminals heading to central London to prey on shoppers during the Christmas and New Year period.
Operation Cratchet is a major initiative targeting robbers, pickpockets, bag snatchers and shoplifters.
The latest figures show that a Londoner is mugged about every nine minutes.
Though street crime fell by about 15 per cent in the 12 months to March, there are still 164 muggings a day.
People in the capital stand a one in 10 chance of being robbed or attacked - the highest risk in the country.
This is despite hundreds of police being sent to the worst areas and the beginnings of a fall in the figures for mobile thefts as firms take action to deactivate stolen phones.
The number of daily muggings jumped to more than 180 when police were tied up with the massive security operation surrounding the visit of President Bush.
On Saturday, Orianne Collins's personal items were returned to her by Westminster City Council Soho City Guardian wardens Alan Auchterloine and Sabah Boulakhras after they found the discarded belongings in the West End and took them to a nearby police station.
Bank cards identified the snatched bag as belonging to Orianne Collins who was tracked down through her bank and the Swiss consulate.
Phil Collins' secretary phoned the two guardians, employed by the council to patrol West End streets, the next day and thanked them.
Yesterday morning a large food hamper arrived for them both carrying the message: "Dear Alan and Sabah, Thank you for saving my life - I will always be grateful to you. Have a lovely Christmas. Kind regards Orianne Collins."
Alan Auchterloine said last night: "It's always nice to be thanked for doing a great job. Celebrity or not we'd do the same for everybody."
Three years ago, a gang of muggers punched the 85-yearold mother of Collins - and robbed her elderly friend on a London street.
June Collins, her business partner Barbara Speake and an elderly male pal were ambushed by three masked men late at night outside the stage school that they run in East Acton.
They punched June and assaulted her friends before snatching a bracelet and ring from Barbara, 71, and running off.
Nine years ago, Collins left his second wife, Jill, and young daughter, Lily, after meeting Orianne while on tour in Switzerland.
She was a 22-year-old meeterandgreeter and Collins said he fell in love with her " somewhere between the airport and the hotel".
He added: "I went on tour and met Orianne and everything fell into place. I don't know if it was a midlife crisis because I'd never been middle-aged before.
"All I know is that everything clicked into place. Orianne did things like have Sunday dinner with her family. They all sat down for three hours and talked!
"I so wanted to be with her that I never went home."
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