Britain leads Europe in mobile phone pickpocketing – data

Related theft claims in the UK have surged over 400% in just five years, according to new research

Nearly two in five phone theft claims across Europe originate in the UK, according to data compiled by the US insurer SquareTrade, as cited by The Times on Friday.

London alone reportedly accounts for nearly half of all pickpocketing incidents involving mobile phones in the country.

The research, based on claims across SquareTrade’s twelve European markets, found that 39% of all mobile phone thefts occurred in the UK, despite British customers representing only 10% of the company’s client base.

According to the report, mobile phone theft claims in Britain have soared by 425% since June 2021, with 42% of these taking place in London.

That figure represents 16% of all phone thefts across the region, while Birmingham recorded the second-highest number of reported incidents.

The data also revealed that phone thefts in the UK spike during the summer months and around Christmas, aligning with travel, festivals, and seasonal shopping activity.

These findings are supported by official data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which reported a 50% increase in “theft from the person” in the year ending December 2024 — amounting to 483,000 incidents. Mobile phones were the most commonly stolen item in these crimes.

Read more

Separate research by Compare the Market, released earlier this year, showed that over 70,000 phones were stolen in London in 2024, equivalent to 1,349 per week. If replaced with the latest models, the cost to Londoners could reach £70 million.

According to the Metropolitan Police, nearly 40% of all phone thefts in London occur in Westminster and the West End. The Met estimates that mobile phone theft has become a £50 million per year industry for criminal gangs.

The sharp rise in thefts comes amid ongoing economic pressures and deteriorating living standards in the UK. Earlier this year, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) noted that Britain is neither a high-wage nor a high-welfare country, leaving millions “trapped between low wages and inadequate support.”

In addition, Britain has long struggled with illegal migration, with officials linking some rises in theft and gang activity to undocumented individuals operating via criminal networks.