‘Snatch theft’ robberies have doubled in the last year to 78,000 incidents between July 2023 and June 2024, compared to the previous year, according to crime data released by the ONS last week.

Snatch theft is the act of stealing property such as mobile phones, handbags, watches, directly from their possession.

The overall incidents of thefts from persons have gone up by 25 per cent, primarily owing to the near 150 per cent rise in incidents of snatch thefts. 32,000 snatch thefts were recorded from July 2022 to June 2023. 

Incidents of snatch thefts in 2023-24 were more than the total number in the two preceding years, as per the comparable data available. During the period, snatch theft incidents were the highest in over a decade. 

Mobile phone robberies are the major concern with snatch thefts, with police conducting numerous operations to tackle organised criminal gangs in the past year. Meanwhile, Google has recently introduced new features to its Android mobile operating system to increase users’ ability to secure mobile devices.

Police have also taken certain steps to arrest the rising number of mobile robberies. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said, “Operational tactics to improve mobile phone robberies and theft include maximising dedicated proactive police operations, and increasing officers in local hotspot areas to reduce mobile phone robbery and theft offences.”

The spokesperson added that the police are working with local partners in hotspot areas to break the cycle of stolen mobiles entering criminal markets. These partners include mobile phone networks and local businesses.

The target areas for such crimes are places of high footfall and tourism, such as Westminster and Soho in central London. “To combat mobile phone robberies, we have specialist teams of both uniformed officers and detectives who attend robbery calls quickly, search the area with victims and witnesses for suspects, and help to secure CCTV and forensic evidence to support mobile phone robberies and investigations”, the spokesperson said.

Crime stoppers, a UK-based charity organisation, working to reduce crime said in a website article that mobile phones and the data which is stored on it is a prime target for thieves. It is important to be “careful using it outside train and bus stations, as these are popular venues for snatch theft, often by motorcycle or scooter”.

National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Personal Robbery, Richard Smith, believes that criminals usually tend to target the most vulnerable groups in the society for such crimes. He said last month in a statement, “Personal robbery can have a devastating impact on victims, leaving them with trauma which can be lasting.” He added, “Criminals often target some of the most vulnerable in society, such as children, with threats that violence may be used, making robbery particularly traumatic.” 

Top officials from the government including the Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson have also expressed intent to crack down on Snatch theft. In a statement last month, she said, “As part of our Safer Streets mission, 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.”

She added that phone companies need to ensure that stolen phones can be quickly, easily and permanently disabled, and that thieves should not be able to re-register them for sale on the second-hand market.

Despite a drastic rise in snatch thefts, there continue to be more incidents of ‘stealth theft’. There were as many as 133,000 stealth thefts between July 2023 and June 2024, a 10 per cent rise compared to last year. 

Across England and Wales, there were “no statistically significant changes” in overall theft incidents compared to last year, according to the ONS report.