Telephone snatches are dropping quick throughout London, however the minute-by-minute race to catch them is leaving officers and victims modified.
Metropolitan Police interceptor automobiles on patrol (Picture: AFP through Getty Photos)
A specialist operation tackling telephone thieves working in London vacationer hotspots has resulted in a gang of six suspect being arrested for theft. The swoop got here as cell phone theft within the capital plunged by 13,000 previously yr, amid a crackdown that has seen the Metropolitan Police deploy drones and highspeed e-bikes. In whole, 67,064 telephone theft offences had been recorded within the yr ending April 2026.
The most recent figures additionally confirmed a 21% discount in theft from an individual offences throughout London within the final monetary yr, representing 20,000 fewer victims. As a part of Operation Catchclaw, plain garments officers and specialist interceptor groups are being deployed together with heat-seeking drones capturing proof of thefts, Sur-Ron highspeed electrical motorbikes and stay facial recognition know-how. Detective Superintendent Gareth Gilbert, who’s main the operation, the main target is on the “night-time economic system” and the exploitation of kids by organised gangs. He mentioned: “What we realise is it isn’t a one-off operation as a result of if we arrest somebody, there are the individuals who see the profitable market in these telephones so they’ll fill that vacuum.
We use your sign-up to offer content material in methods you’ve got consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This may increasingly embrace adverts from us and third events based mostly on our understanding. You possibly can unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
A picture taken from the window of a Metropolitan Police interceptor car travelling at pace towa (Picture: AFP through Getty Photos)
“That is an ongoing piece the place we’re arresting individuals and getting these optimistic outcomes.”
Throughout a week-long operation in Southwark and Lambeth in April, officers minimize e-bike enabled crime, which is linked to telephone theft, by 40%, Gilbert mentioned. Some 3,000 illegally modified e-bikes and e-scooters have been seized since January 2025, the Met mentioned.
Telephone theft stays significantly engaging to youngsters, some as younger as 13, who are sometimes recruited for highspeed snatch-thefts and are paid as much as £200 kilos per gadget.
Thieves are often wearing all black outfits with face masks, and plenty of use electrical bikes which were illegally modified to grow to be motorbikes with some reaching 60 miles per hour.
Interceptors have solely a matter of minutes to catch a telephone thief within the act from the purpose it’s stolen. Most stolen telephones are rapidly offered on, usually handed by means of extremely organised prison gangs earlier than being shipped abroad. It’s a commerce estimated to be price greater than £50 million a yr.
Final week’s operation culminated with officers goal crime hotspots round Southbank, Borough Market and Waterloo the place telephone theft is rife.
Plain garments officers, specialist pursuit drivers and motorbikes had been deployed and shortly after midnight, officers recognized a bunch of six suspected telephone thieves working on Borough Excessive Avenue in Southwark. The suspects had been utilizing a distraction tactic which concerned approaching members of the general public and asking them to open their telephones to comply with them on social media. Whereas the gadget was unlocked, they might steal the telephone. Officers moved in inside minutes to intercept the group, arresting the suspects on suspicion of conspiracy to rob.
A suspect on an electrical bicycle is seen from a Metropolitan Police interceptor car throughout a pat (Picture: AFP through Getty Photos)
Gilbert added: “Our message is straightforward: in the event you commit these crimes, we’ll catch you.”
Officers made 15 arrests in whole over a 12-hour interval, for offences together with theft, theft and medicines associated offences.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has referred to as on telephone producers and know-how corporations to do extra to cease stolen gadgets being reset and resold.
He has set a deadline of 1 June for trade to introduce significant measures to assist “design out crime” by making stolen telephones nugatory. If progress will not be made, the Met will ask the federal government to contemplate legislative motion.
Leave a Reply