It's disappointing that this has gone from the OP's story that some guys tried (as far as I can tell entirely peacefully) to blag his credit card to talk of self defence and such things. In more than 50 replies there seems to have been no suggestion that the incident should have been reported to the police.
The police after all have duties and they can't easily carry them out if the public don't give them the information that they need. The police have an excellent computer system, and a few reports giving dates, times, locations, registration numbers and descriptions of vehicles and occupants could be very useful in helping the police to establish a pattern. After a pattern has been established a brief interview might be all that's required to turn someone away from a life of crime. Or at least bang him up for a few months.
We have the means to deal with crime in the UK, but we could make much better use of what we have.