Moment thief on e-bike snatches phone from woman's hand on Oxford Street as UK mobile thefts soar

6 September 2024, 21:18

This is the disturbing moment a criminal phone snatcher grabs a woman’s mobile in broad daylight in the centre of London.

Footage shared online shows a woman walking alone on Oxford Circus before the brazen phone snatcher rides alongside her on an e-bick and rips her mobile from her hand.

The woman, looking visibly shocked, simply stands there, unable to catch up with the thief.

The number of phones, watches and bags being stolen on Britain’s streets has soared to the highest rate in a decade, LBC revealed this week.

The Home Office has raised concerns at the increase of snatch thefts, saying tech bosses are going to be called in to tackle the rising demand for second hand smartphones.

Figures from the ONS show around 78,000 people had one grabbed from them on the streets in the last year - an increase of 152%.

In the year to March 2023-2024 there were 78,000 of the offences - compared to 31,000 in the same period from 2022-23.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said: “These figures are troubling and the government is determined to do whatever’s necessary to protect people entitled to walk the streets without the threat of robbery.

“This new government is determined to crack down on snatch theft, knife-enabled robbery, and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities, and we are working to get thousands more uniformed officers into our communities to restore neighbourhood policing

“Phone companies must ensure that any stolen phones can be quickly, easily and permanently disabled, rather than re-registered for sale on the second-hand market, and we will be meeting them soon to discuss what further action is required to make that happen.

"If we work together, Government, tech companies and law enforcement can break the business model of the phone thieves and moped gangs who rely on this trade."

LBC has heard e-bikes and mopeds are making it more difficult for police to catch criminals, with new tech now being developed to give officers portable devices to bring them to a halt.