116,000 Mobile Phones Were Stolen in London Last Year

More than 116,000 mobile phones were stolen in London last year, or 320 every single day, new figures show.

Data from the Metropolitan Police reveals there were 116,656 reported mobile thefts in 2024 – the highest number on record.

It was more than 50 per cent higher than the total recorded in 2017 when mobile thefts in the capital stood at just over 77,000.

Last year’s total was equivalent to 13 phones being stolen every hour.

It was 1,300 incidents higher than in the previous 12 months.

Despite the staggering number of thefts, only 169 suspects were charged in the year, and seven were let off with a caution.

The new figures, obtained from police under freedom of information laws by the campaign group Crush Crime, also showed a further 8,588 handset thefts in January this year.

Scotland Yard figures, seen by the Daily Mail, revealed 116,656 mobile phones were reported stolen last year

The police data showed 61,000 of victims were female and just under 48,000 were male, with the remainder not recorded.

Dr Lawrence Newport, campaign founder, said: ‘We are in the midst of a phone theft epidemic, and our government is failing to act.

‘Our politicians need to wake up to reality: they need to stop this epidemic, and push our justice system to catch, convict and imprison these career criminals.

‘Half of all crime is committed by just 10 per cent of offenders, meaning only a small number of career criminals are committing most phone thefts.’

Astonishingly, from 2017 to 2024 the total number of mobile phones reported stolen was almost 684,000.

They were estimated to have a value of £365million, based on values reported to the police by victims.

Retailer Curry's launched a new campaign earlier this month to warn Londoners of the risk of mobile phone theft

Signage warning pedestrians in London of the danger posed by mobile phone snatchers

The number of phone thefts climbed to 91,000 in 2019 but dipped during pandemic lockdowns.

It then went on to exceed the pre-Covid total in 2023, with just over 115,000 thefts.

The type of handset most commonly reported stolen last year was Apple iPhones, with just under 71,000, followed by Samsung phones, with 14,000.

Late afternoon and early evening was the time of day when most handset thefts took place.

For example, last year saw 8,231 between 4pm and 5pm; 8,806 between 5pm and 6pm; and 8,975 between 6pm and 7pm.

The lowest number of thefts was between 6am and 7am, with 1,036 reported in that timeslot during the year.

The London borough with the most phones stolen last year was Westminster, with 34,039.

Camden came second with 10,907, followed by Southwark with 7,316.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15022287/Record-116-000-mobile-phones-stolen-capital-year-incredible-13-HOUR-169-suspects-charged-police.html

One of the devices on the list of most stolen is the Samsung S24 Ultra, released by the Korean company early last year and costing £1,249

Two drivers on a motor bike take the phone from a woman in London. After stealing, thieves are generally paid for their services, while the devices tend to be exported overseas for to be resold or dismantled for parts

The two most-stolen phones in Britain are made by Apple - the iPhone 15 Pro Max (left) and the iPhone 16 Pro Max

This terrifying phone snatch in Marylebone, central London, shows a thief taking a woman's phone as he zooms past on an e-bike

Whenever we take our phone out on the street, we're at risk of having it snatched from our hands by brazen thieves. Pictured, pedestrians walk over newly-installed signage warning people of the high risk of phone snatch thefts in London 

Pictured, a phone-snatching criminal on a bike mounts the pavement to take the device out of the hand of a victim waiting at a London bus stop in footage released by the Metropolitan Police

Phone thieves arrested by the Metropolitan police within minutes of targeting store in the West End

Youngsters are being groomed into stealing phones by county-lines gangs, which are then shipped abroad in bulk and sold around the world.

This is the frightening moment a pedestrian has his phone snatched out his hands by a thief on an e-bike. 

Marin Blake's iPhone was snatched on a night out in North Carolina, but she has tracked the device to a city in China that is more than 8,000 miles away

Blake's phone thief travelled to Miami before heading Shenzhen, a leading global technology hub often revered to as the Silicon Valley of China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmryYAooG6M

The Feiyang Times building in Hong Kong is known for selling second hand mobile devices from Western countries

It has become synonymous with the illicit phone trade, where thousands of iPhones snatched off the hands of people by balaclava-clad thieves in Europe and the US end up

Hong Kong serves as a critical middleman in this supply chain

Buyers in Shenzhen, China, will often dismantle these phones to resell their screens, chips and circuit boards

Victims of phone theft in the West have seen their mobile devices eventually end up in the Chinese city

Shenzhen is located in the south of China next to the border with Hong Kong

The UK's Metropolitan Police estimated that phone theft in London is a £50 million-a -year industry

Cops said they seized 1,000 stolen devices and made 230 arrests related to phone theft in one week

Figures have shown that a mobile phone is reported as stolen in London every six minutes

Criminals often target pedestrians in busy locations such as outside stations, shopping centres or concert venues

Zakaria Senadjki, 31 (left)  and Zakaria Senadjki, 31 (right) were jailed for their part in a criminal gang that handled more than 5,000 stolen phones in November

Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, 25, (right) and Nazih Cheraitia, 34, (left) were also jailed last year for their part in a phone snatching criminal group

Oxford Street has become a hotspot for phone thefts in an area of London which saw a phone stolen every 15 minutes

CCTV captured a bike theft in July on Park Lane when another unsuspecting man had his mobile snatched in broad daylight by a crook in all black 

London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is responsible for policing in the capital.