A MOTHER has expressed her concern at the police's handling of an emergency call after her 15-year-old son was allegedly threatened with a knife and robbed of his £3,000 e-bike.

The incident is understood to have taken place at around 11.30pm on July 24, when two people posing as prospective buyers arrived at the family's home in Kingskerswell to view the bike.

According to the boy's mother, the pair threatened her son with a knife before stealing the e-bike and fleeing the scene.

Speaking to the Mid-Devon Advertiser, she said she immediately dialled 999, but claims she was told to phone 101.

‘Literally, they'd just taken his bike and threatened him,’ she said. ‘I phoned 999 and told them somebody had just taken my son's bike from our house.

‘The operator asked if they were still at the scene. I said no, they had literally just left, and she said I would have to ring 101’.

The mother queried whether officers could be alerted to search for the suspects while they were still nearby, but alleges she was again instructed to contact the non-emergency number instead.

She said it then took approximately an hour to get through to 101, by which time she believed the opportunity to locate those responsible had been lost.

‘The 101 operator asked whether I had told the 999 operator that my son had been threatened with a knife,’ she said. ‘I said no, because she didn't ask me and I was expecting her to ask for details, descriptions and so on’.

She said the 101 call handler took a full statement and recorded all the details of the incident.

The teenager was not physically injured, but was left shaken by the experience, according to his mother.

‘He's okay. He's 15 and they don't give much away,’ she said. ‘He was upset because he has lost his bike, but also because it was quite a shocking experience.

‘He had saved his paper round money for three years to buy it. He was trying to sell it so that when he turns sixteen he could buy a bike to ride on the roads - be independent, get himself around and not have to use the bus’.

The e-bike is understood to be worth around £3,500.

Councillor Jane Taylor, a retired chief inspector, described the handling of the emergency call as ‘deeply concerning’.

‘They pulled a knife on him and stole the bike. His mother rang 999, and the call taker said: “Well, they've left the scene” It wasn't treated as a 999 incident, they wouldn't even take her details, told her to ring 101 and put the phone down.

‘Words fail me. It breaks my heart as an ex-police officer’.

Cllr Taylor said the response appeared to overlook the ‘golden hour’ principle — the critical period immediately after an incident when swift police action offers the greatest chance of a positive outcome.

She said the opportunity to act quickly had been squandered.

The mother has since made a complaint to Devon & Cornwall Police.

The force confirmed that enquiries into the robbery remain ongoing, but said that it could not comment on the complaint.

‘We cannot comment on the complaint however, as it is an open complaint’, say a spokesperson for Devon & Cornwall Police.