17 May 2007
Mobile phone thefts across England and Wales have dropped by 100,000 over the past year, according to figures from the Home Office.
Current figures show there to have been 800,000 instances of phone theft during the last 12 months, with people aged 12 to 24 more than twice as likely to have their phone stolen when compared to any other age group.
Security drives from mobile phone companies have been cited as one of the reasons behind the drop, with providers making the cancellation process of barring the handset and the sim card easier than ever before.
Home Secretary John Reid implored the leading manufacturers of mobile handsets to make security a top design priority last week and requested that the designers concentrate as much on anti-crime functions as on other design features.
A Home Office spokesman told Reuters: "We welcomed the ground-breaking announcement earlier this year that the mobile phone networks blacklisted 90% of stolen phones across all networks within 48 hours."
He added that the Violent Crime Reduction Act, passed into law last month which made it an offence to offer or to agree to re-programme a mobile phone, had also made an impact on the crime rates.
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