July 4, 2005
War waged on mobile phone crime
Police in south Wales are taking action to halt the spread of mobile phone theft - and to help return stolen handsets to their owners, reports BBC News.
In 2004, more than 18,000 mobile phones were reported stolen, lost or taken in robberies in south Wales alone. This represented an estimated loss of more than £1m and thousands of phones are never returned. Besides, many of those recovered by the force cannot be returned to their rightful owners because no-one knows who they are.
South Wales Police has now started subscribing to a UK-wide data base designed to match phones with their rightful owners. In areas like London and Greater Manchester, which have been subscribing to the database for some time, the detection rate for mobile phone crime has increased by 30%.
South Wales Police are now urging phone users to register their numbers on the National Mobile Phone Register to give themselves greater protection.
A legislation to prevent mobile phones from being doctored should soon be introduced under the government's forthcoming Violent Crime Bill. The new law will make it easier to arrest people for reprogramming stolen mobiles so they can be used again. The bill will also make it illegal to offer or agree to reprogramme a phone, rather than the act of doing it.
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