Police in the capital’s Chroy Changvar district are set to send five suspects to the municipal court after arresting them a day earlier for robbing people travelling in the early morning of April 17 on Win-Win Boulevard in Praek Ta Sek commune.

Deputy district police chief Ek Sereyvuth said on April 18 that the five suspects had attempted to rob travellers of their personal property that night.

He said the five were believed to be connected to three other suspects who were arrested on April 4.

They were already under suspicion by the police of committing crimes like bag snatching and robbing people who were travelling on Win-Win Boulevard, but no known victims had died or been seriously injured as a result of their criminal activities.

Sek Socheat, executive director of the Mindset Development Organisation, said street crimes such as bag or phone snatching are usually committed by youths – some of them drug users or gang members – and it would promote lawlessness in society if left unpunished.

“Bad actions committed by youth gangsters have caused many problems to society already, contributing to the destruction of decent morals and traditions,” he said.

He said the causes could be a lack of discipline at school along with a lack of time or ability by their families to spend enough time with them to give them good advice and raise them to be productive members of society.