London has become a thief’s paradise

If London wants to end rampant phone theft, it must crack down with tougher policing, harsher sentences, and increased stop-and-search.  

London is crumbling into a playground for the lawless. The figures are stark: a Freedom of Information request to the Met Police found 70,137 mobile telephones stolen in 2024. That is a 40 per cent rise from the prior year, representing 192 daily thefts — one every seven minutes. Londoners (and tourists) are losing £70 million yearly — £360 million since 2017 — yet justice emerges from a mere 2 per cent of these crimes.

Losing a phone is not just losing an expensive possession. It is losing access to your contacts, and to your social media, and (in many cases) to your savings. Besides this, it represents a painful violation.  I remember standing, years ago, at an Islington bus stop. Two youths on a moped tore past, snatching a woman’s phone as she stood texting. She stood helpless, while we onlookers, myself included, stared in mute paralysis. 

The honest citizen now skulks through his own streets, clutching his phone to his chest, prey to thieves who operate with medieval impunity. I write as someone born in Islington — a borough now a fiefdom of phone-snatching predators.

Recently, whilst travelling on the London Underground, around six breathless youths burst in, one no older than 11, shedding balaclavas to reveal bright pink cheeks and sweaty faces.

At least eight smartphones spilled from one youth’s jacket. He didn’t look older than 16 and quickly gathered the phones, hiding them from prying eyes.  

Covering up evidence, perhaps? Were they stolen? One cannot say for certain, of course, but the carriage bristled with unease.

Nearly two-thirds of Londoners feel that Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan does not view phone theft as a pressing or significant issue, based on a survey conducted by City Hall Conservatives.

And who can blame them: compare this to Boris Johnson’s last full year as mayor in 2015. Then, London recorded roughly 359,000 total theft offences, including phones, against 477,000 in the year to September 2024 under Khan — a 33 per cent jump while national theft rose just 3%. 

Phone theft, a key driver, has exploded on Khan’s watch, with nearly 70 per cent of all thefts in 2022 tied to mobiles.

It’s depressing walking around London — spotting signs that warn that you are in an area with an increased chance of robbery, almost as if we should accept our fate. Forty per cent of these thefts plague the West End — a place that should be a source of fun and inspiration and not anxiety.

I still remember speaking to a young female journalist from Bristol a few years ago who told me how unsafe she felt walking around central London with her phone out. This made for quite the cultural shock when she first moved to the capital.

The Met Police have arrested 230 in recent efforts and gained powers for warrantless searches

Yet 90 per cent of “theft from a person” cases remain unsolved. A mere 1 per cent end in charges. The criminal laughs at odds of 99 to 1. This is not policing—it is capitulation.

The remedy is clear, though our leaders flinch. Police must be free to search without political timidity. A youth in a balaclava astride a moped in high summer invites suspicion — let the law act accordingly.

Yet, if recent reports are to be believed, the Met Police have been told they should be “less aggressive” when carrying out stop-and-searches. While the police should not abuse their power, this kind of rhetoric sends the wrong message to genuine criminals that those paid to protect us are soft.

Make the criminal fear the law, not the law-abiding fear the criminal

There should be an increase in visible officers patrolling these blighted zones, not as a gesture, but as a deterrent rooted in authority. However, this looks increasingly difficult, as the Met Police will be cutting its workforce while still needing to make up a £260 million budget shortfall for next year.

The courts, and politicians, have to step up as well. Last summer, a 28-year-old man in Islington stole 24 phones in a morning and was jailed for two years. This isn’t justice but a mockery; punishment must deter — or at least incapacitate. Speaking of incapacitating, manufacturers and networks should render stolen phones useless — stripping thieves of profit. No gain, no theft. 

London has been betrayed by a doctrine that pities the thief, hampers the policeman, and forgets the victim. Make the criminal fear the law, not the law-abiding fear the criminal.