A biker who grabbed a handbag from a woman on a main road in Penge can’t be tracked down because the CCTV camera covering the road hadn’t been repaired yet.

Dioni Bennet, a retired bodyguard, ran to help the woman and informed the police what happened but was told they didn’t have any footage of the incident.

Dioni, who also used to work as a bouncer before a heart attack eight months ago forced her to retire, said she couldn’t see the license plate of the motorbike because she didn’t have her glasses on at the time.

But when she asked about possible footage from the nearby CCTV camera she was told it was broken.

She said: “So if you are on a scooter and rob someone you get away with it. The message we are sending is do anything because we have no cameras.

“The one thing that is there to protect us is not working here. The least we can ask for is a bloody CCTV camera.

“The Christmas bloody tree was working, why can’t you have something more important like cameras?”

The 60-year-old ex-bouncer saw events unfold from her upstairs window at around 6:30 am on Monday, January 16, and she rushed out to help the victim.

She said: “This motorbike just runs up the pavement and literally ran her over. The bike did a u-turn at the bus stop where a CCTV camera is supposed to be and just said give me the bag.

“When she didn’t give it to him he wrestled it off her and drove past the bus stop where there should be a camera.

“She was distressed as you can imagine. I had to drag her into my house in case he came back.

“If I had got hold of this guy on the motorbike I would have thrown him under the bus.

“We have had gangs going down the high street. One of the shop owners was assaulted. This is not somewhere safe.

“It’s a failure of duty to the people of Penge.”

A Bromley council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, an HGV reversed into this CCTV camera very recently, meaning that it has had to be replaced.

“We have already installed the pole and are now simply waiting for EDF to connect the electricity supply before the camera can be used again.”