Londoners ‘living in fear’ of phone thefts as more than 116,000 snatched

Londoners left in a perpetual state of fear from relentless phone snatchings have opened up on their experiences following record levels of thefts in the capital.

Police busted ‘the biggest counter-phone theft operation’ worldwide last Monday, run by a gang which imports half the UK’s stolen handsets and has shipped 40,000 to China – Metro has today heard from some of their victims.

An interactive map reveals the worst-affected London boroughs, such as Westminster and Camden, which topped the list with 34,039 and 10,907 phones stolen respectively from 2017 to 2024.

Metropolitan Police data released in August revealed 116,656 mobile phones were stolen in London in 2024, the highest number on record, amounting to 320 a day.

The data was obtained from the Met under freedom of information laws by campaigning group Crush Crime.

Londoners have since written in to Metro, detailing their stressful and disempowering experiences after having their personal devices nabbed at the worst possible times.

James Keegan had his phone robbed at knifepoint by two youths on bikes near Camden Road station in March this year which left him feeling powerless.

‘The act itself was a very traumatic experience as was the subsequent invasion of my privacy.

‘The experience was a sobering realisation of just how inextricably fundamental our phones are nowadays, my whole life was on pause as I was locked out of my bank, email and social media.’

James added that it was ‘depressing’ that big tech companies did not help him much and called on the police to give these matters more weight.

‘It simply isn’t possible to function in a society without one [a phone] anymore and the police and the justice system need to take these crimes far more seriously because it’s honestly a f***ing joke.’

Simon Harding, 55, criminologist and director of the National Centre for Gangs Research, said: ‘What these boys will do is bury the phones in a bag or rucksack, leave them for a week until they ring off and distribute them amongst their drug runners.’

Mr Harding added that it was a ‘very disturbing and dramatic intrusion’ into people’s personal lives. He explained why phone snatchings in particular were on the rise.

‘If a phone can be stolen when open and active then all the data can be taken – that’s very important these days – that’s why the phone snatchers are very popular as opposed to phone thefts.’

Eleanor Noyce, 27, said her iPhone was stolen last December in Soho en route to a Christmas party after getting off the tube at Oxford Circus.

She said the ordeal was ‘nerve-wracking’ – especially stressful as a young woman after dark with no means of contacting friends or family.

‘Being a young woman and it being dark by the time I left the party, I knew that if something happened to me, I had no way of contacting anyone if I needed help.

‘It was certainly a bit nerve-wracking,’ she said. ‘In the end, I had to go the whole evening without a phone, but I at least managed to get myself home in one piece.’ 

In February this year, the BBC reported an ‘industrial-scale’ clampdown on phone snatchings and the arrest of 230 people after more than 1,000 devices were seized.

Commander Andrew Featherstone, Met lead for tackling phone theft, said it was the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK.

Patcharin Wongsatien, a mother of two, was also victim to a terrifying phone snatching after a gang cornered her on a quiet north London street.

‘There were two boys on a bike and two other boys waiting on top of the road, that’s why I let go of my phone because I tried to hold on, but then saw the other two were coming as well.

‘I was shaken and shocked so I called the police but they were not very helpful – they said many phones were stolen and it happens all the time.’

Patcharin, who was robbed in 2023, said she did not receive much help from police in Islington but Londoners came to her rescue.

Other boroughs with more than 5,000 incidents included Hackney with 5900 and Newham with 5833 in east London.

Thieves are paid up to £300 a handset to turn a huge profit in China where Apple devices are sold for up to £3,711. 

Apple products are targeted because of their overseas profitability, Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, the senior investigating officer for Operation Echosteep, said.

Mark Evans was walking home with AirPods in when he had his phone snatched in Elephant and Castle.

‘I took a shortcut through a quiet road and two people on an e-bike came past and snatched it out my hands.’

Just a few days later, his phone had migrated to China.

‘I called the police who came around immediately to give me a case number, but a few days later I was told they couldn’t do anything and there was no CCTV.’

Mark said the theft had a stark impact on him.

‘The emotional impact was the main thing for me; given it took place so close to my house, it made me feel a lot more unsafe and anxious in my area.

‘I looked on Find My iPhone a few days later and it was in Guangzhou in China.’

Police launched Operation Echosteep in December last year after a box with 1,000 iPhones bound for Hong Kong was discovered close to Heathrow Airport.

Before lockdown in 2019, phone thefts rose to 91,000 before decreasing when government restrictions were imposed.

Following lockdown, 115,000 offences were recorded in 2023.

Hotspot boroughs such as Haringey, which had 3,433 thefts in 2024, and Tower Hamlets with 4,088 incidents, were targeted by the Met earlier this year.

On September 20, a man was charged with handling stolen goods after being stopped with 10 stolen phones at the London airport. Two iPads, a pair of Rolex watches and two laptops were also found.

Police discovered that the same man travelled between London and Algeria over 200 times in two years.

Two other men in their 30s were arrested three days later in north-east London on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

More than 2,000 devices were found at properties linked to the suspects, as well as several phones in their car.

They have been charged and remanded in custody.

In total, 46 arrests have been made as part of the two-week operation including 11 arrests when police tackled gangs robbing iPhone 17 delivery vans.

Another 15 people were arrested in the last week on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods and conspiracy to steal, police said.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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