Met Police launches crackdown on mobile phone thefts

A clampdown on the “industrial-scale” crime of mobile phone-snatching across London has resulted in 230 people being arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the past week.

In its battle against the “scourge of mobile phone crime”, the force said it had also seized more than 1,000 handsets.

The Met has deployed plain-clothed officers in “hotspot” areas, including the West End and Westminster, and is also using tracking technology to recover phones and catch criminals.

It said its work had been “ramped up” to deal with the £50m-a-year trade in stolen phones across the capital, with those responsible for thefts, handling, and onward criminal supply all being targeted.

It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper chairs a summit later on Thursday on smartphone theft.

The Met said that the home secretary and Met Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens would discuss the issue of improving security on phones to prevent stolen devices from being easily resold.

A recent victim, Richard, told the BBC that the theft of his phone had left him feeling “uncomfortably nervous”.

Richard said he was walking along Highbury Fields in north London when someone dressed “entirely in black” who was riding an e-bike snatched his phone from his hand.

He said: “It’s frustrating because that’s exactly where this sort of thing typically happens. I’m always telling people to be careful, but for one moment I forgot and my phone went off into the distance.”

He said he was initially angry, but his thoughts soon turned to worries about his banking details being obtained by the thief – although this did not happen.

Richard said he was “surprised” by the police response to his phone being stolen.

He explained how officers visited him at home, and by using a tracker they could see his device had been taken to a phone repair shop, where Richard said the police explained there had been previous criminal activity.

Despite this, the phone could not be recovered.

The way police responsed to this crime is markedly different from what other Londoners say they have experienced, even recently.

In December, a designer from Tottenham told the BBC how she had felt unsupported by police after her phone was stolen, and ended up using tracking technology to trace it herself.

Izzy Du located the phone hidden in a hedge, along with six other handsets.

The Met’s Cdr Owain Richards said: “We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale, fuelled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad.

“By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital.”

He added that there were calls for other agencies and the government to do more, and for tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.

The force wants the phone industry to prevent stolen handsets from being reconnected to cloud services.

The Met said it had used tracking technology, and victims reporting phone-thefts, to recently prosecute four members of a gang who were later sentenced to a combined 18 years in prison.

The gang had been caught handling more than 5,000 stolen phones.

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said the Met was “spearheading targeted work to prevent and tackle mobile phone theft in London”, adding: “I’m determined to eliminate the scourge of mobile phone theft in our city for good.”

Advice from police:

• Use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via the Police National Mobile Property Register (NMPR)
• Set up a strong password and two-factor authentication
• Turn off message previews so thieves cannot see any messages
• Write down and safely store the phone’s IMEI number