Clampdown on £50m-a-year phone theft trade leads to 230 arrests in London

A clampdown on the £50 million-a-year trade in phones being stolen in London has seen 230 people arrested in the space of a week and more than one thousand handsets seized.

Those responsible for the theft, handling, and onward criminal supply or exportation of smartphones were specifically targeted during a week of co-ordinated activity across the capital to tackle the scourge of phone thefts.

The Met’s ramped-up operation has seen intensified efforts to tackle phone thefts by increasing patrols and plain-clothed operations in hotspot areas, including the West End and Westminster, where nearly 40% of phone thefts occur.

At the same time, officers are using phone-tracking data and intelligence to pursue those handling stolen devices.

Such measures are proving successful and last year four members of a gang were sentenced to a a total of 18 years after handling more than 5,000 stolen phones.

They were tracked down by local Met officers after numerous victims reported their stolen phones being at the same location.

Later today the Home Secretary will chair a summit with law enforcement bodies and industry focused on tackling smartphone thefts.

One of the items that will be raised by the Met’s Deputy Commissioner, Dame Lynne Owens, will be strengthening security on phones so stolen devices cannot be easily resold.

The Met wants to work with industry to prevent stolen phones from being able to re-connect to cloud services and make IMEI numbers accessible from the lock screen of all smartphones.

Commander Owain Richards, who is leading the Met’s response to phone thefts, 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. But we need help from partners and industry to do more. That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.”

Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: “The Met is spearheading targeted police work to prevent and tackle mobile phone theft in our communities. Thanks to the hard work of officers and intervention work led by London’s Violence Reduction Unit, personal robbery is down 13 per cent in the capital compared to the same period last year. We continue to support the Met from City Hall with additional funding for neighbourhood policing.

“But there is more to do. As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and re-used illegally. We’ll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.”

Increased patrols in Westminster saw 17 arrests for robbery and theft, following 42 Stop and Searches linked to the Met’s intensive activity. In Hackney and Haringey, officers made 15 arrests linked to the operation, including a 15-year-old boy on an illegal electric bike who was found with £1,000 in cash and a large knife.

The success in tackling phone thefts comes after the Met moved out of special measures last month, following major improvements in many areas of service to London. These include responding more quickly to emergencies and strengthening neighbourhood policing to better respond to communities’ concerns, including tackling theft and robberies.

The Met is urging anyone who has lost or had stolen a phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via

Phone users should take simple steps to further protect themselves from fraud, by ensuring they have a strong password, two-factor authentication and turning off message previews so thieves cannot see any messages about reset or log-in codes when phones are locked. They should also write down and safely store their IMEI number.