Two in every five phone thefts across Europe happen in the UK, new figures claim, as the government attempts to grapple with county line gangs turning to phone snatching.
And harrowing figures show London is at the centre of the snatching chaos, with one in every six phones nabbed across the continent happening in the capital, according to American insurance firm, SquareTrade.
After surveying data across its 12 European markets, it found despite Brits only accounting for 10 percent of their customers on the continent, they made up 39 percent of all phone loss claims.
Nearly half of phone theft in the UK happened in London, according to the gadget insurance firm, with Birmingham following in second place.
Phone snatching incidents also occurred more frequently in summer months and Christmas, aligning with busier travel months, shopping periods as well as festivals.
Britain has become ‘leading country for missing devices in Europe’, the company told The Times, with claims of phone theft has quadrupling since June 2021.
Latest statistics from the Crime Survey for England and Wales also indicated ‘theft from a person’ rose by half in the last year to 483,000 incidents, with the most common object snatched in the category being mobile phones.
In 2024, 70,371 phones were stolen in London alone, and in 2020, around 20,000 phone thefts were reported, however, due to a lack of reporting from victims, the figures are likely to be higher.
Last September, the Home Office promised to crackdown on phone thefts by increasing patrols in the most at risk areas, while adding Operation Opal, the national police intelligence unit, would also be honing in on crooks.
E-scooters and e-bikes driven by brazen phone snatchers are to be destroyed by police within hours of being seized amid a crackdown on London ‘s mobile theft epidemic
This terrifying phone snatch in Marylebone, central London, shows a thief taking a woman’s phone as he zooms past on an e-bike
Phone thefts are estimated to cost Londoners and its visitors at least £70million, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan was also accused by City Hall Conservatives of ‘virtually ignor[ing the problem, even though he remained adamant he was continuing to support the force with ‘record funding’ to tackle the epidemic.
The most stolen devices were iPhones, SquareTrade reported, with claims on average totalling to £1,200.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max was the most commonly stolen device, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max coming in second place, followed by the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Kevin Gillan, the managing director, of Square TradeEurope, told The Times: ‘July creates a perfect storm — festivals, holidays, and crowded spaces increase the risk of theft. London is especially vulnerable, and the UK now leads Europe in phone theft claims.’
It comes as county lines gangs have turned to snatching phones instead of dealing drugs to feed a growing £70m a year epidemic.
Gang members are grooming vulnerable young people to steal mobiles on Britain’s streets due to unprecedented overseas demand and softer sentences for those who are caught.
Stolen phones are being shipped abroad in bulk and sold around the world, a police chief warned, with some 80 per cent of the 80,000 phones stolen every year in London ending up overseas.
A Mail investigation tracked down a phone stolen from an estate agent on the capital’s famous Baker Street across the globe to a high-rise block in Hong Kong, where it sat alongside hundreds of thousands of other handsets.
MailOnline’s map shows the apparent routes young crooks are taking on a regular basis in and around Hyde Park
CCTV shows the shocking moment a woman was thrown to the ground as thieves grabbed her mobile phone from her in King’s Road, London
The pair responsible for the brazen daylight attack then ran off past the other boutiques
And a police chief in charge suggested the likes of Apple and Google had the gift to stop the trade by making a phone worthless after being taken.
At least 230 phones were stolen every day on average in the UK last year – twice as many as five years ago and rising all the time.
London is the epicentre, making up roughly 75 per cent of phone thefts, but it is clear the problem is nationwide, with every major force recording thousands of stolen phones every year.
Even rural areas, such as Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Gloucestershire, cannot escape the problem.
