Home Secretary to chair smartphone theft summit after Met Police clampdown

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will chair a summit on smartphone theft after the Metropolitan Police seized more than 1,000 stolen devices in one week.

The force targeted those involved in stealing, handling and supplying stolen phones in a week of “co-ordinated activity” across London.

It said 230 people had been arrested in the clampdown on the “£50 million-a-year trade in stolen phones”.

Hotspots include the West End and Westminster, and police had already increased patrols and “plain-clothed operations” in those areas.

During Thursday’s summit with Ms Cooper, Met Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens will raise improving security on phones to prevent stolen devices from being easily resold, the force said.

Officers also want to work with industry members to prevent stolen handsets from re-connecting to cloud services, and to make a device’s international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number viewable on its lockscreen.

Network providers can use the unique 15-digit IMEI to block the device if it is stolen.

Commander Owain Richards, 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.”

Phone-tracking data and intelligence is being used to trace people using stolen devices.

Last year four members of a gang were sentenced to “a combined 18 years” after handling more than 5,000 stolen phones, the force said.

They were tracked down after multiple victims reported phone theft in the same location, it added.

Mr Richards said “we need help from partners and industry to do more” and the force is “calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable”.

Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said “personal robbery” has fallen by 13% in the capital compared to the same period last year.

She added: “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 reused 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.”

Published: 06/02/2025 by Radio NewsHub