A cyber security expert has cast doubt on the Metropolitan Police’s new June deadline for tech companies to tackle phone-theft.
Jake Moore, a former police investigator, believes none of the proposed solutions to tackle the crime would completely kill the market for stolen phones.
Moore claimed tech companies are well aware of the fact phones can simply be replaced through insurance – and that they benefit to a degree.
He said: “If anything, the tech companies are the real winners here.
“So the pessimistic, cynical view would be that the tech companies maybe don’t even mind these phones being stolen because they’re going to be replaced.”
Speaking at the Met’s first international mobile phone crime conference, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said mobile phone theft has become a major global crime business that police can’t tackle alone.
Rowley singled-out tech companies, saying: “If by June industry has not come forward in a genuinely serious, solutions-focused way – with concrete commitments that make stolen phones unusable anywhere in the world – the Met will formally ask the government to legislate.”
The Metropolitan Police said it has deployed greater resources on the ground to tackle phone theft, including trained officers using Surron e-bikes and drones to pursue thieves.
The force added gangs are recruiting children via Snapchat, with rewards of up to £380 per phone stolen.
Rowley suggested that greater efforts by police alone could not eliminate the problem while stolen phones remain valuable on the black market.
He said: “Only manufacturers and operating system providers can break this model at source,”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan added: “We need a system‑wide prevention approach, focused on removing the economic value of stolen devices.
“Mobile phone crime is a global menace – driving crime, violence and fear, and for victims, the personal impact can be traumatic.”
Phone thefts in London fell by 12% last year, but that still left more than 71,000 such thefts in the capital in 2025 according to police data.
In October, the prime minister’s then chief of staff Morgan McSweeney had his government issued iPhone stolen in Westminster, sparking questions around the potential disclosure of sensitive government information relating the appointment of Peter Mandelson.
But Moore said software features like stolen device protection, which has been made default for all users in a recent iPhone update and allows users to quickly lock-down a stolen phone remotely, had become vital to preventing theft.
He said: “That helps in the ‘golden hour’ when it’s stolen, that’s when the initial criminal or handler will do whatever they can to get in there.”
Moore highlighted the need for consumers to be cautious, but said there was only so much they could do.
He said: “I think we’re only one step away from police blaming victims for this occurring.
“At the moment they are really wanting to blame the tech companies, because they’re scratching their heads thinking ‘how on earth do we combat this problem?’
“When the advice is ‘don’t get your phone out in Oxford Street’ – well, that’s difficult when your phone rings.”
Ultimately it will take a combination of efforts by consumers, police and the tech sector.
Moore said: “Everyone’s blaming everyone else in this triangle, but they all play their part.”
Featured image credit: London Metropolitan Police
