A MASKED moped mugger laughed as he revealed he could make £1,500-a-DAY stealing from innocent victims in Lawless London and boasted cops are powerless.

The reformed gangster said "war is coming" as he gave a chilling insight into how he nabbed phones and jewellery from terrified pedestrians during a reign of terror on the streets of the capital.

Lucas, who spoke to Sun Online with the help of a charity that works with reformed gang members, was jailed for his crimes and claims he is no longer carrying out moped muggings.

In a startling interview he:

Boasted that police are powerless to stop moped muggers as the violent crimes soar in the capital

Claimed he made £1,500 a day from moped muggings by stealing phones, watches and jewellery

Revealed his tactics for snatching - including scoping out areas beforehand to learn his escape route and flee from cops safely

Told how he would pick his targets by what they were wearing and if they had something he liked or was an "easy get" for him

Bragged about having no remorse as we have insurance anyway and laughed as he told our reporter "they're not gonna miss nothing"

But his words should serve as a warning to police chiefs and political leaders under pressure to get to grips with a rising tide of moped muggings and robberies in the capital.

The UK is currently in the grip of a street crime epidemic with more than 22,000 motorbike offences carried out in the capital alone last year – around 60 a day.

The shocking number of attacks is compared to just 1,053 in 2014 - a staggering 1,000 per cent increase in the past three years.

Last week, comedian Michael McIntyre was mugged by knife-wielding thugs in front of his terrified son, 11, in Hampstead, North West London.

There are now fears the same yobs could have stabbed a driver with a zombie knife just three miles away on the North Circular Road two days earlier.

But peering out from his mask, brazen Lucas boasted about cops being powerless to catch moped yobs as it's "against the law".

He said: "You can never catch me on the bike, they can never catch me in action - no way.

"You can't stop someone on a moped, police can't stop us on a moped anyway. It's against the law, they have to leave us to drive off because if you do something you're going to lose your job.

"Because you're on a moped, it's not going to work, you'll kill us so you're just gonna have to leave us to drive - try and get the helicopter out or something."

He added: "When [the police] started they had their time, now their time's over - their playtime is over.

"It's time for them to crumble, it's time for them to just break down. So it just goes in deeper and crazier."

Lucas first started moped mugging when he was just 13 after he was shown how to steal a bike as a way of making "easy money".

He then spent "many years" robbing from innocent bystanders across London while weaving through traffic to evade cops before he was eventually caught and jailed.

But the former gangster told Sun Online he has "no remorse" for the crimes he carried out - and even tried justifying it because he didn't use a weapon.

And Lucas even laughed as he revealed how he would target the rich because they're insured, adding: "They're not gonna miss nothing. Love that."

The thief, who hid his identity with a crude Halloween mask, explained to our reporter he could take home £1,500 a day by stealing iPhones and jewellery.

He would travel across the capital targeting pedestrians before using his "connections" to sell on the stolen goods.

Describing how he would carry out a "snatch", Lucas said: "You have to observe the area you're gonna do your thing in.

"You have to know where you wanna go, you're gonna want to know your roads, know your exits. You gotta know who it is, it could be anyone but you have to target your person.

"You gotta make sure you know the roads because when you do it, you can drive off straight away and take it from them without going on the pavement.

"It depends how wild you are. If you're wild, you can just drive on the pavement, take it, drive off.

"If you wanna do it without getting hurt you just get to the closest person near the road so it takes longer because a lot of people near the road is old people so me personally, I don't do old people so it takes longer for me.

"Sometimes [I can take] anything - it can be bag, watch, chains. The person might have a chain on their neck, that's an easy get.

"Maybe a person got an iPhone 6 in his hand just walking - that's also easy to get."

Lucas said he mainly carried out robberies alone as he wanted to "get it done properly" but would sometimes have someone acting as the "snatcher" while he drove.

But Lucas was eventually stopped by police after he got "bookey" - meaning dodgy - and he spent time in prison.

The ex-criminal now claims he has turned his life around and believes he has "done my time and paid the price".

He said he only started carrying out moped muggings to "feed his family" as he insisted it was better than other violent crimes.

Lucas said: "I didn't do it for fun or the gain from it, I did it because it was a way of making money and it was better than stabbing someone for it or killing someone or it was better than you know hurting someone physically and taking their life for it or selling drugs.

"It's a sad thing what I done but at the end of the day I did it for a reason. I never done it because I wanted to, I done it because I needed to.

"They had something that I wanted that was gonna make money to feed my family, to feed me so I did it. I tried other ways but it didn't work so I tried this way."

Lucas added: "I tried to not pick innocent people but if they got something I like then sorry. I try and pick people that are willing that are not gonna cry over things, little stupid things.

"I was young, those were the times I needed to make money the most. It's easy money, it's not harming anyone and everyone goes home happy. You just go home with whatever thing."

A wave of stabbings and shootings have also gripped London this year as the grisly murder toll rose above New York for the first time ever.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has admitted he was responsible for the surge in violent crime in the capital but refused to say sorry - instead pointing the finger at the Government for cutting police numbers.

Confrontational "drill" music has also been said to be fuelling the rise in violence on the streets.

The style of rap, which originated in Chicago, has now swept the UK aided by former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood who hosts drill videos on his YouTube channel.

Lyrics are usually extremely graphic, glorifying violence and gang culture.

But Lucas issued a chilling warning that the recent bloodbath is just the beginning as the police are "struggling".

He said: "There's a different energy in the world now, things are changing you know. Life is changing.

"It's not just robbings on bikes, it's people trying to ban drill music. Drill music is a negative music right now in the music industry. There's just a lot of things that are just negative, there's a lot of things changing."