Mobile phone theft has been ‘effectively decriminalised’ with fewer than one per cent of offences resulting in a charge, new figures reveal.
Almost nine in ten cases are closed without a suspect being identified.
And just 0.82 per cent of such crimes led to a charge across 17 police forces in England and Wales in 2024-25.
There were 86,000 phone thefts reported to forces during this time period.
The statistics were obtained by the Liberal Democrats, who highlighted the issue after it emerged the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had his phone stolen last year.
The investigation was initially closed with no suspect after a police call handler recorded the wrong location for the crime, but Scotland Yard is now revisiting the case amid concerns the phone contained key texts between Mr McSweeney and Lord Mandelson.
Downing Street has refused to say whether important messages regarding Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador have been lost.
Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesman, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Morgan McSweeney having his phone stolen was just the tip of the iceberg. People could be forgiven for concluding phone theft has been effectively decriminalised.
‘Criminal gangs are feeling emboldened to strike in broad daylight, safe in the knowledge they have a less than 1 per cent chance of ever being caught.
‘A stolen phone isn’t just an expensive item; it holds your entire digital life, from bank accounts to private messages. The fact that thousands of these cases are closed without a suspect even being named is a slap in the face to victims.
‘The Liberal Democrats are calling time on this phone snatching epidemic. It’s time for a dedicated National Crime Agency unit to track down the professional gangs behind these thefts and end the era of daylight robbery.’
Of the 17 forces that responded to Freedom of Information requests, the Metropolitan Police had the highest proportion of cases closed without a suspect being identified at 95 per cent.
Last month the force, Britain’s largest by some margin, revealed it had reduced phone theft in London by more than 12 per cent in a year – from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year.
Its commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, recently gave tech giants until June to ‘design out’ thefts by installing a kill switch that would turn stolen phones into an ‘unusable brick,’ or they would face legislation which would force them to act.
Meanwhile, separate figures obtained by the Sun show police failed to solve 92 per cent of all burglaries, with a third of forces not cracking a single case.
Of 184,783 burglaries for which an investigation was concluded last year, 143,000 were closed without identifying a suspect.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp called the figures ‘totally unacceptable’ and called for Labour to get a grip.
