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

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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