Police force gives tech giants brutal ultimatum as they tackle phone theft epidemic

Police force gives tech giants brutal ultimatum as they tackle phone theft epidemic Although phone theft in the West End has fallen by 50 per cent in the past year, the Metropolitan Police are calling on tech firms to work with the force in a bid to disrupt the global criminal networks Tech firms have been given an ultimatum by the Metropolitan Police - make stolen phones harder to reuse or face government intervention. The warning came as the force announced a new partnership with Apple aimed at disrupting the global criminal networks behind phone theft and making stolen devices significantly less valuable to criminals. The agreement will see the Met and Apple share intelligence on stolen devices to track what happens to handsets after they are taken, helping officers build a clearer picture of where stolen phones end up and whether they are being reactivated. It followed more than two years of campaigning by the Met, which said phone theft had become a lucrative international criminal enterprise. Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “I gave an ultimatum to tech firms – take urgent steps to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or we will call on Government to step in and legislate. “For the first time, we are routinely sharing intelligence on stolen devices, building a joint picture of how these phones move and whether they reappear in circulation. That partnership is already making a difference. If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them. We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward.” In April, three mobile phone handlers admitted handling stolen goods following a Met investigation into what officers described as the UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling network. Police said the group trafficked up to 40,000 stolen devices from the UK to China between 2024 and 2025. The Met also seized more than 1,000 suspected stolen phones during a raid on a shop in North-West London. The announcement also came as phone theft in Westminster fell by 50 per cent following a targeted crackdown by the force, which saw hundreds of arrests and thousands of stolen phones recovered. “This is an important step, but it must not stop here. If you are stealing phones in London, the reality is changing fast. The opportunities are shrinking, the risks are rising, and we are determined to dismantle this criminal model completely.” Alongside the partnership, the Met called on the Government to introduce legislation requiring phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and reconnections. The force also asked the Home Office to begin preparing legislation that would introduce minimum technical standards to ensure phones stolen in the UK are effectively unusable if industry efforts fail to go far enough. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “The Commissioner and I have been crystal clear that mobile phone crime cannot be solved by policing alone. Decisive and coordinated action from the mobile phone industry is long overdue to prevent stolen phones being used, sold and repurposed both here and across the globe.”