London’s phone snatching victims said the 230 arrests have been a ‘long time coming’ after they were left feeling ignored and blamed by the police.
Officers arrested 230 suspected phone snatchers in the space of just a week, and recovered 1,000 mobiles during their raids.
Victims may begin to see their phones returned back to them, but some say the police’s efforts have ‘come too late’.
Adele Pearson, who has had her phone snatched twice, told Metro: ‘What am I going to do with my old phone, sell it back to the gangs? I have already had to replace mine twice.’
The TV producer had her first phone snatched by a man on an e-bike while she was walking along London Bridge in July last year.
But just two months later her replacement phone, which she had only just received through her insurance, was pinched from her at a pub.
She said: ‘I am a double victim, and it’s frustrating it seems like work to stop the phone snatching is only just starting.
A woman is seen tapping a man on the shoulder in the middle of London’s busy Oxford Circus (Picture: Metropolitan Police)
A plain-clothed police officer then appears moments later, putting the man into a headlock (Picture: Metropolitan Police)
‘When my first phone was snatched, the public were more of a help than the police. a group of builders tried to chase the guy down for me but he got away.
‘I still don’t walk down the streets the same way, if I see a tourist with their phone out I go up and warn them.’
In footage released by the Metropolitan Police, one plain clothed police officer is seen spotting a phone snatcher, in a dark blue backwards baseball cap and black jacket in Oxford Circus.
The thief had targeted an elderly person in the tourist hot spot, but one officer spotted the attack and tackled him to the ground in front of shocked pedestrians.
Other footage shows moped drivers snatching devices out of the hands of people walking along pavements and waiting at bus stops.
He then wrestles him to the ground as people look on, while others have no idea (Picture: Metropolitan Police)
Rutesh Durve was walking into Piccadilly Circus tube station when his phone was snatched straight out of his hands.
He chased the thief down but realised it was too late, and just one week later his phone was in China.
Rutesh, who works in stock markets, told Metro: ‘I was walking down the steps and was checking a few messages and without any warning a guy on an e-bike wering a black hoodie and black clothes with his face covered and grabbed my phone.
‘By the time I had realised what had happened he was so far away and it was very crowded.
‘My wife started receiving messages pretending to be Apple, with fake links trying to get her to input my password – it was a sophisticated level of workmanship.’
Thieves targeted people at bus stops (Picture: Metropolitan Police Service)
Officers also carried out raids in second-hand phone shops and used helicopters to find the thieves.
Snatch thefts have increased by 150% in London over the last year, with one phone stolen in the capital every six minutes.
The Home Secretary will chair a summit with law enforcement bodies today to try and stop the thefts plaguing London.
Commander Owain Richards, who is 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.
‘By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital. But we need help from partners and industry to do more.
Thieves have been targeting people across central London (Picture: Metropolitan Police)
They have arrested 230 suspects (Picture: Metropolitan Police Service)
‘That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.’
Some 78,000 people had phones or bags stolen from them on British streets in the year to March 2024.
That is a rise of more than 150% on the 31,000 ‘snatch thefts’ in the 12 months before, according to data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Figures also show that four in five police investigations were closed before a suspect was even found and just 0.8% of ‘theft from the person’ complaints resulted in a charge.
The government has pledged to crackdown on the scourge, with the Home Office saying it will work more closely with tech firms and police chiefs.
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