Four people have been arrested on suspicion of theft offences after Met Police swarmed a Maidstone apartment building.

Two vans and squad cars were spotted outside a troubled block of flats in Pudding Lane yesterday at around 11am.

A spokeswoman from the Metropolitan Police said: "Officers from the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command were in the Maidstone area of Kent yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation in relation to a series of theft offences.

"Four people were arrested and taken to a south London police station where they remain in custody.

"Two women aged 31 and 45 were arrested on suspicion of theft and two men aged 20 and 30 were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to steal.

"Enquiries continue."

The vehicles were pictured outside Star House flats, which have hit the headlines a number of times in recent years.

Last January neighbours and business owners in Pudding Lane set up a residents society for the road which they said had been "blighted by crime" since the arrival of council tenants re-housed by the London boroughs of Newnham and Waltham Forest.

The month before a pregnant mother was stabbed in her Star House flat and there was a fight in the street where a hammer and knife were wielded.

A woman was airlifted to hospital in a serious condition after a fire took hold in a fourth floor flat opposite Star House.

There has been frequent concerns and tales of constant drunken and drug-induced aggressive behaviour.

On February 10, Wayne Duck was fatally injured after a fight between the Herbalist bar and the Old House at Home pub in Pudding Lane.

The 43-year-old died five days after hitting his head on a lamp post and pavement having been punched twice in the head.

He was rushed to King's College hospital where a trauma scan revealed he had suffered a fractured skull.

Sadly, his condition began to deteriorate and doctors made the decision he was too unstable to be taken into theatre.

His cause of death was given as head injury and the inquest was suspended pending criminal investigation.