Mobiles immobilised in street crime crackdown

A campaign to immobilise stolen mobile phones in a bid to crack down on street crime was hailed a success today.

Police reported that almost half a million stolen or lost handsets have been disabled since the introduction of a central database in November.

In all, 440,000 stolen sets have been rendered useless by the scheme, which allows all UK phone networks to share information on thefts. It is intended to make mobile phone theft, currently a major element of street crime, pointless.

The mobile phone industry, the police and the government today sought to improve the system by introducing a website, www.immobilise.com, and a single helpline number, 08701 123123, for victims of mobile phone theft.

Mobile owners are being urged to make a note of their phone's 15-digit identification number, or IMEI. It can be found by typing *#06# into your phone, or by looking behind the battery.

If a phone is stolen, its owner can ring the helpline to report the handset's IMEI. The set will then be disabled across all networks, meaning that the phone will not work even if the SIM card is swapped.

A £1.5m advertising campaign will promote the scheme through phone retailers. Home Office research shows that mobile phones are involved in nearly a third of all street robberies, with an estimated 700,000 phones stolen in 2001.

Police in London also revealed that they have arrested 11 people for reprogramming stolen mobiles since it was made illegal under new legislation last October. The Mobile Telephones (Reprogramming) Act made altering a phone's serial number a crime that can result in five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

However, industry executives admitted that it was still relatively easy to reprogramme stolen handsets, and said they had no idea how many were affected.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said: "This is the first time the police, the government and the mobile phone industry have all worked together to crack down on mobile phone theft, something we are all deeply committed to doing.

"The message from this new scheme is clear: that stolen mobile phones will not work. Anyone in the business of reprogramming mobile phones can also expect a prison sentence of up to five years."

Sir John said that the jail terms, the new database and today's advertising campaign would bolster police operations aimed at reducing street crime, which has fallen 18% year-on-year in London.

He said that mobiles were involved in 48% of street robberies in the capital, being the only items stolen in 28% of cases.

In January this year, there were 1,518 street crimes in London in which only a mobile was stolen, and a further 1,213 in which a phone was among the items taken.

Reprogrammers are still advertising their services on the internet, and industry executives admit that the level of technical knowledge needed is low.

The first arrests under the new legislation were made in London, the West Midlands and Lancashire. In January, Lancashire police raided a warehouse and found 11 reprogramming devices.

In the same month, west Midlands police raided a mobile phone shop in Birmingham and seized equipment allegedly being used to reprogramme phones.