Man who destroyed ULEZ camera with explosive device is convicted

A man has been found guilty of using a home-made bomb to destroy a newly installed Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) camera in southeast London.

Kevin Rees, 63, placed the device next to the camera in Willersley Avenue, Sidcup, on 6 December 2023 before lighting the fuse and running away before the explosion.

The blast caused pieces of shrapnel to propel into cars and homes and the force of the explosion caused nearby houses to shake. Fortunately, no-one was injured by the device.

Rees, from Sidcup, was a committed campaigner against the ULEZ scheme – which charges vehicles which do not meet emission standards to drive in Greater London.

Analysis of his social media profile revealed many posts criticising the scheme and celebrating the damage or destruction of ULEZ cameras.

Rees was arrested on 18 December 2023, and when police searched his home, they found a price list of chemicals that could be used to manufacture explosives as well as two substances that he had bought.

Officers also discovered three home-made stun guns in working order, which are prohibited under the Firearms Act 1968.

At Woolwich Crown Court today, Rees was found guilty of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, and three offences of possessing a prohibited weapon.

He will be sentenced at same court at a later date. 

Bethan David, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division, said: “This was not an act of protest or momentary vandalism. This was a deliberate and dangerous attack involving a home made explosive device, carried out in a residential street and designed to destroy public infrastructure.

“Kevin Rees knowingly and intentionally placed an explosive device next to the ULEZ camera, lit the fuse, and retreated before the explosion, showing clear planning and an obvious disregard for the safety of others.

“Whatever his views on the ULEZ scheme, Kevin Rees crossed a serious line by constructing a home-made bomb and detonating it in a public place. It was pure chance that no-one suffered serious injury or worse.

“The Crown Prosecution Service will always seek to prosecute dangerous offending of this nature, and hopefully this conviction sends a clear message to other protesters considering taking the law into their own hands.”

Proving the case

• Prosecutors used video evidence to prove the identity of Rees. Rees lived close to Willersley Avenue and CCTV footage along his route showed him driving to a cul-de-sac called Shuttle Close.
• The footage then showed a man wearing a light-coloured top and dark trousers, and carrying a bag, walking out of Shuttle Close and round to Willersley Avenue, where he walked up and down for a few minutes
  The ULEZ camera had already been cut down and would have been difficult to see from his initial position, but once Rees crossed the road and located the camera, he lit the fuse and placed the cylinder on the ground next to the junction box. The device exploded one minute and 40 seconds after he had lit the fuse.
• About ten minutes later he returned to Shuttle Close, and the cameras then captured the defendant’s car driving out of Shuttle Close and back to his home.
• The prosecution asserted to the court that this was the same man, and that it was Kevin Rees who had detonated the bomb.
• When interviewed for the second time by police, he gave an account of his whereabouts on 6 December. He told officers he had left home around 6.30pm and driven to a friend’s house to look at some damp his friend had noticed in the kitchen that Rees was installing there. He said he was there for around 15 minutes, and that on his way home he stopped in Shuttle Close to walk through to a park he called ‘Goats Field’ for around ten minutes before driving home. He was shown images of the man seen on CCTV and said it was not him. He added that the bag he put into his car at the start of his journey contained a blow torch, a cylinder for the blow torch, a solder, a flex and a couple of wrenches. He said he left those items at his friend’s house.
• But prosecutors were able to challenge that account after police obtained CCTV footage from a camera opposite the friend’s house which showed Rees arriving in his car at 9.25am on the morning of 6 December and leaving at 3.15pm. He did not return to his friend’s house that day, meaning that he was lying to officers about his whereabouts.

At Woolwich Crown Court today, jurors found him guilty of all charges.