People claim London crime is rising because it suits them, Met commander says

Claims that London is becoming more dangerous despite the crime figures indicating otherwise are being made because it suits some people, a senior police commander has said.

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and right-wing commentators have increasingly sought to portray the capital as a “lawless” city from which high net-worth individuals are fleeing.

But Andrew Featherstone, a commander in the Met police, said the data showed a decrease of 13% in robbery this year as he revealed that a suspected international smuggling gang believed to be responsible for handling 40% of phones stolen in London had been dismantled.

Asked about perceptions that London was becoming unsafe, Featherstone said there was “no doubt” that it suited “some people, organisations and others” to suggest that was the case.

“When you look at the actual facts, that is not true,” said Feathertone, who is Scotland Yard’s lead for tackling phone theft and has been overseeing a crackdown in the West End of London that could be rolled out to the rest of the city.

The issue of theft in London has become increasingly politicised, with Farage making a series of contested claims during the summer about crime levels in the UK. He said it was “unbelievable” that one in three people in London had been a victim of phone theft – drawing on a fintech survey of 1,000 people, rather than the police-reported figures which suggested that far fewer had been affected.

On Monday, the Met promoted its operation against phone theft as part of a drive to step up the targeting of so-called volume crime – such as shoplifting, phone theft and burglary.

After an investigation lasting nearly a year, the force said it had taken down a criminal network suspected to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months – up to 40% of all phones stolen in London.

The Met said it believed it had “significantly disrupted” London’s stolen phone market in an operation known as “Echosteep”, which started last December when a box containing about 1,000 iPhones being shipped to Hong Kong was found at a Heathrow warehouse.

Specialist detectives who would ordinarily investigate armed robberies and drug smuggling were brought in, leading to the interception of further shipments and the use of forensics to track down suspects. Two men in their 30s, who were arrested last month in north-east London on suspicion of handling stolen goods, were charged and remanded in custody.

A further 15 people were arrested in relation to street-level offending such as robberies and pickpocketing.

However, the force expressed frustration at phone companies including Apple, whose iPhones account for 80% of stolen phones in London. Apple had the ability to effectively render phone theft a crime of the past, Featherstone said.

“We do have a frustration with this. We believe that Apple’s phones have the ability to use certain software and technology which prevents from being recycled,” he said.

“The biggest problem is that while a phone would not necessarily be recycled in the UK – the network providers would not allow it – that isn’t the case if it leaves the country.”

Featherstone said the Met “knows the technology” is there because Apple have no trouble blocking phones stolen from their stores.

The group investigated had specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas, according to DI Mark Gavin, the senior investigating officer for Operation Echosteep.

“We discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 in China,” he said.