Overview

• SquareTrade analysis of 12 European markets found 39% of all phone thefts occur in the UK despite it accounting for only 10% of customers.
• London accounted for 42% of UK thefts last year, representing 16% of the continent’s total incidents.
• The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales recorded 483,000 theft-from-a-person incidents in the past year, with mobile phones the most targeted items.
• Police warn that county lines gangs are recruiting youths to snatch phones on high-speed e-bikes for an estimated £70 million-a-year black-market trade.
• Officials are urging phone manufacturers to implement remote kill switches after e-bike patrols and Operation Opal failed to stem daily snatch-and-run thefts.