The biggest phone theft crackdown in UK history led to the Metropolitan Police uncovering a criminal network suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China.
All the devices were smuggled in the past 12 months and up to 40% were stolen in London – a further 15 people were arrested in relation to connected street offending such as robberies and pickpocketing.
The investigation began after a box containing 1,000 iPhones getting shipped to Hong Kong was discovered at a warehouse near Heathrow airport. This resulted in the launch of Operation Echosteep.
Durham student, Ollie Turan, who lives in north London spoke about his experience of getting his phone stolen last year.
He said: “I had my phone out without really paying attention and two guys came behind me on bikes, one just grabbed it out of my hand, didn’t even stop and just cycled off.
“A few months later on New Year’s Eve, my mum was on her way home from work and somebody took her phone.
“I still have the location data for my device and last time I checked it was in China.”
Operation Echosteep brought in specialist detectives, who usually investigate armed robberies and drug smuggling, to track down suspects of the phone theft network.
On 23 September, two men in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods – several phones were found in their car and around 2,000 more devices were found at properties linked to the suspects.
Shortly afterwards there were a further 15 arrests were made on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods and conspiracy to steal as well as more that 30 suspected devices found during searches at 28 properties across London and Hertfordshire.
The group were targeting Apple products due to their profitability overseas and street thieves were being remunerated up to £300 per handset, according to the Met.
The Met also revealed devices were then being sold for up to $5,000 in China.
Sometimes, robberies can become violent such as for Rene, an artist from north London, who got mugged at knifepoint at Notting Hill carnival two years ago.
Rene said: “I got approached by one person at first that grabbed me and I resisted, which was in hindsight very stupid of me to resist and try to fight the person because then a group of road-men approached me with a knife.
“They took my phone because I got so scared by the knife that I will be stabbed that I just gave it up.
“The worst case financially was that they somehow entered my bank details and paid with my Apple Pay around London, they were going around on Ubers on my tab and doing stuff like this – that was even more than the worth of the phone.
“It was really noticeable that they were organised.”
Dominique, who works in finance in London, recalled a time when she was targeted for a phone theft but managed to retrieve her device.
After her phone was grabbed she said: “I instinctively screamed, and I think he [the thief] didn’t expect me to scream, so he dropped it.”
Despite being able to recover her phone, the incident still left her shocked.
“You know these things happen but you just never expect it to happen to you – I also expected phone thefts to be in central London, it was surprising it happened in Southwark,” she said.
The Met are now calling for phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung to do more to support their investigation and protect customers from the epidemic of street crime in the UK.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “This is, without doubt, the largest operation of its kind in UK history.”
Featured image credit: Metropolitan Police
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