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BBC
A nationwide crackdown on mobile phone crime is being launched with the creation of a special police unit.
Latest figures show half of all street crime now involves mobile phone theft.
Nearly 200 are stolen in England and Wales every day, mostly in London, and many are exported by gangs to Africa, Asia and Europe.
The £1m National Mobile Phone Crime Unit will bring together immigration, Customs and Excise and police officers with industry experts.
Senior police officers say, if successful, the unit could make a "significant" impact on the UK's robbery problem.
Mobile phone networks have recently made advances in anti-crime measures, with all stolen phones now capable of being blocked for use in Britain.
Tough penalties are also in place for criminals who seek to re-programme handsets.
However, Scotland Yard's Commander John Yates, who will be in charge of the unit, said it was believed the "epidemic" of mobile phone theft across Britain was still being fuelled by an international market.
Handsets taken abroad do not need re-programming and, while British customers are offered cheap phones as an incentive to sign up with networks, users abroad enjoy inexpensive calls but have to pay for handsets costing up to £800 each.
"This is all speculative at the moment," said Cmdr Yates, "the aim of the unit is to find out what is generating mobile phone theft and what we can do to combat it".
"If we crack it, it will make a significant impact on our robbery problem."
He said there were some extremely organised gangs, particularly behind burglaries on retail outlets.
"The whole purpose is to understand where the volume is going," Cmdr Yates added.
As part of the new initiative police are hoping to get industry co-operation to set up an international database to make all stolen handsets useless whatever their destination.
Information gathered by the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit about how criminals operate will be passed to all law enforcement agencies and police forces across the UK.
Although officially launched on Wednesday, the unit has already been involved in 40 operations, making 22 arrests and recovering 1,200 stolen mobiles.
Since 1999 the number of people using mobiles in Britain has risen from 17 million to 51 million.
And soaring street crime, especially phone snatches, has led to criticism of the government's record on law and order.
Earlier this year Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to cut street crime in the worst affected areas.
To block a lost or stolen mobile
08701 123 123
REACTIVATING A STOLEN PHONE
o Over 70% of the world's mobile phones use GSM, the Global System for Mobile Communications
o It means mobile phones can be used across national boundaries - known as 'roaming'
o But it also means a phone stolen in the UK can be used anywhere where GSM operates including Europe, Asia and Africa
o Re-programming a stolen mobile phone to operate in the UK is relatively simple
o But to work abroad all it needs is a new SIM card
masseur comment:
I've personally never had a phone stolen but this sounds horendous!
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Posted: 2003-12-17 12:57:56
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Thanks Masseur.
I was just about to post the same link. You beat me to it.
All i can say is about bloody time they started to give it more thought.
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Posted: 2003-12-17 13:12:13
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I have heard a popular target place in London is outside underground stations as many people get straight on their phone after coming up the escalators from underground.
I am sure there was a plan 2 or 3 years ago or so to introduce coverage on the underground? They have it here in Frankfurt and I am sure its available in Stockholm too as it was about to be introduced just after I last worked there.
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Posted: 2003-12-17 13:16:05
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Superluminova Posts: > 500
thanks mass, its about time the police tried to do something about mobile crime.
it happens all the time and i see it happen regularly, most of the time its when people have just come out of phone shops with new handsets in carrier bags
or at footie matches where there are large crowds,
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Posted: 2003-12-17 13:55:44
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Does that mean if somebody steals my mobile and then takes it abroad it will work? even though ot is barred here in the uk?
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Posted: 2003-12-17 14:05:17
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@PeterKay
Yes, because the 'blocking' is network specific. In other words, if you have your phone stolen in the UK and report it, it will be barred by all of the UK networks so that non of their simcards can be used. But NOT by all of the other networks in other countries.
This is why some people find that a second hand, unlocked phone will work on all networks except one, because that one network has barred the phone for some reason but all of the others haven't.
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Posted: 2003-12-17 14:19:21
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@Cycovision
Thanks for the detailed info, appreciate it.
I didn't think it would be possible to work abroad, maybe they should work on a programme that would barr the phone all around the globe.
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Posted: 2003-12-17 14:31:48
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The eastern-european networks and i am sure some western ones too aren't interested in joining an it'nal black list4gsm ph for 1 simple reason: stolen phones mean new customers.
This message was posted from a T610
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Posted: 2003-12-17 20:48:41
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Always keep your P9 in your pocket & use a BT headset while holding a shop display "Dummy" phone to your head.
Note, "Dummy" refers to the person who runs off with it.
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Posted: 2003-12-17 21:19:15
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@peterkay
No probs mate, I'd bore you (or anyone else for that matter) to death on this forum anytime!
@701
I quite agree. The stolen mobiles market has grown rapidly world wide, and while i'm not a 'conspiracy theorist', I'm pretty sure that the 'big businesses' are not ignorant of the opportunities that this practice inadvertantly presents to them. No surprise then that they don't seem to be too bothered about it, eh? I think you hit the nail on the head there
[ This Message was edited by: Cycovision on 2003-12-17 22:16 ]
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Posted: 2003-12-17 23:09:14
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