I think being surrounded by such wealth while you're dirt poor and living in an awful council estate is part of what makes these people bitter and desperate, turning to crime to make money to be like everyone else they see in the area. I'm not saying that justifies what they do at all, and they deserve to be locked up once caught, but perhaps that explains some of it. Personally I think the theory that putting council housing in and around middle class /wealthy areas is an utter failure because the benefits are never realised in practice when people of both sides end up avoiding eachother anyway. Instead you just get conflict and those middle class people moving else. It's why you've seen such an exodus of the middle class from London when you have to pay through the nose for a half-decent property, but there's still awful crime right around the corner anyway. The only actually nice and safe residential areas left in London are in the South West and parts of the West.