Map reveals where you are most likely to have your phone stolen in London as crime committed once every six minutes
Only two per cent of reported incidents see phone returned
A phone is reported stolen every six minutes in London, new figures from the Metropolitan Police have revealed.
An average of 248 reports of phone theft is recorded every day in the capital, totalling 91,000 in the whole of 2022.
Yet only two per cent of these reported thefts result in the phone being returned, according to data obtained by the BBC.
It comes as numbers released by the Met Police to Green Smartphones this year show that Westminster is the area in London where a person is most likely to have the phone stolen.
There were 5,911 phones reported stolen in Westminster in 2022. Camden came in as the next London hotspot for phone theft, with 2,494 phones stolen. Moving east, Hackney is third with 2,468 phones reported stolen in the borough.
The places with the least reported phones stolen are Sutton and Bexley.
Here is a map which shows the number of phones reported stolen in London in 2022:
The independent inspector of police forces, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS), told the BBC: “Phone theft is not a minor crime, it strikes at the heart of how safe people feel in their own communities.
“There needs to be a concerted drive to address this because it directly affects the public’s confidence in the police’s ability to keep them safe.”