Phone theft in London has fallen by 13,000 offences over the past year as the Metropolitan Police deploy heat-seeking drones, high-speed electric motorbikes and live facial recognition cameras in a targeted crackdown that officers say is beginning to deliver results — though figures showing fewer than one per cent of cases result in a charge have prompted warnings that the crime remains effectively unpunished.
The Met’s Operation Catchclaw has been using Sur-Ron high-speed electric motorbikes alongside specialist plain-clothes interceptor teams to pursue thieves who use illegally modified e-bikes capable of reaching speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. A total of 67,064 phone theft offences were recorded in the 12 months leading up to April — a significant reduction on the previous year. Across London, theft from a person fell by 21 per cent, equating to around 20,000 fewer victims.
The results from targeted operations have been striking. During a week-long deployment around crime hotspots at Southbank, Borough Market and Waterloo, Catchclaw officers cut e-bike-enabled crime — including phone theft — by 40 per cent. On Friday alone, officers identified a group of alleged thieves in Southwark using a distraction technique in which members of the public were asked to follow them on social media; once a phone was unlocked, it was stolen. Officers moved in within minutes, making 15 arrests over a 12-hour period for offences including robbery, theft and drug-related crimes.
Detective Superintendent Gareth Gilbert, who leads the operation, said the approach was producing measurable change but acknowledged it required sustained effort. “If we arrest someone, there are the people who see the lucrative market in these phones so they will fill that vacuum,” he said. “This is an ongoing piece where we are arresting people and getting those positive outcomes.”
Children as young as 13 are routinely recruited by criminal gangs to carry out the thefts, reportedly being paid up to £200 per handset stolen. Operation Catchclaw is working alongside charities to rehabilitate young people involved and help steer them away from reoffending.
The Met has seized nearly 3,000 illegally modified vehicles since January 2025. Westminster remains the worst-affected borough, with 18,932 phones stolen last year, followed by Camden with 5,543 and Southwark with 5,276.
Despite the progress, the broader picture nationally remains troubling. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats and reported by the Daily Telegraph show that fewer than one per cent of phone thefts across 17 police forces in England and Wales resulted in a charge in 2024-25. Almost nine in ten cases were closed without a suspect being identified. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said: “Criminal gangs are feeling emboldened to strike in broad daylight, safe in the knowledge they have a less than one per cent chance of ever being caught.”
The Met’s crackdown has also extended to the international networks profiting from stolen devices. Operation Echosteep, launched in December 2024 after a box containing approximately 1,000 iPhones destined for Hong Kong was discovered at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, uncovered what officers described as a major smuggling operation. The criminal network is believed to have exported up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over a 12-month period — potentially 40 per cent of all phones stolen in the capital. One man arrested at Heathrow was found to have travelled between London and Algeria more than 200 times in two years. A further two men were arrested days later in north-east London, with officers finding a number of phones in their car and around 2,000 more devices at properties linked to the suspects.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has issued a public warning to phone manufacturers, calling on the industry to take meaningful steps to make stolen devices impossible to reset and resell by 1 June — or face the prospect of the Met pushing for legislative action. More than 224,000 phones have been reported stolen in London over the past four years, though the true figure is likely higher given that many thefts go unreported.
The City of London Police advise anyone concerned about phone theft to set a strong PIN or passcode, note their IMEI number by dialling *#06#, install a tracking app, and turn off message previews to prevent thieves accessing reset codes on a locked screen.
