A minicab driver robbed at gunpoint has become the latest victim of serious crime on London Road.

The driver, who works for Road Runners in West Croydon, had a handgun held to his head by a bogus customer on Sunday (March 3).

The suspect walked into the company's London Road office at West Croydon station at 4am ordering a car to Hood Close.

But when the driver pulled up at the address the passenger held the pistol to his head and stole £150 along with the victim's phone.

Road Runner owner, Stuart Wilkinson, confessed he lost two other drivers as a result of the incident. He said: "Two of my drivers have handed in their radios and I don't know if the one in question will be coming back after his experience."

This is the latest incident on the troubled stretch of London Road between West Croydon and Thornton Heath in a month.

An e-fit has been issued of a youth thought to have knifed a 12-year-old on February 21.

And two men have been charged with a serious assault on February 26 which left a Thornton Heath man with serious head injuries.

Detectives are still hunting a man who stabbed a teenager in the leg during a road rage attack outside McDonald's Drive-Thru on February 17.

But Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) coverage is being installed in Broad Green and West Croydon.

It is hoped that the installation of 22 Home Office-funded cameras in the north of the borough will help fight crime on London Road, which has been plagued by serious incidents - including the murder of Andrew Davis last April.

One shop-keeper told the Guardian: "There is a real problem with crime on London Road every day but the police don't come here much."

With police resources stretched in the aftermath of September 11, it is now hoped CCTV will act as a deterrent and useful tool in fighting crime.

Croydon's systems officer Norman Whaley said: "When I submitted the bids to the home office, one of the criteria was the crime statistics, and unfortunately Norbury and Broad Green were among the highest areas."

Starting in Norbury, 18 cameras will be stationed along London Road, including one outside Cinatra's night-club, with four more stationed on Brigstock Road. When they become operational in April, Croydon's CCTV cameras will number more than 500, linked to two operation rooms in Taberner House.