The phone theft victims and the battle to catch the snatchers

It happens in a heartbeat. The whirr of a bike, the brush of a sleeve, and in seconds your whole digital life can be compromised. The pattern of shock and disbelief happens hundreds of times a day on British streets.

The impact of phone theft is often more than financial.

Fenella Rawling’s brand-new iPhone 16 was snatched during a shopping trip in Cambridge in August.

On the device were reams of precious memories of her mother, who has incurable lung cancer, which have now been lost forever as the photos weren’t backed up and her iCloud had not been set up.

“These are memories that I will never ever ever get back,” she said through tears.

Using an app called Find My, Fenella could see in real time her mobile phone travelling by train to London. A week later, it was in Dubai. Then China. Then came a glut of phishing texts asking her to disclose her account details or wipe the phone.

“I don’t know how long I will have with my mum,” she added. “I don’t want to lose anything.”

Stories like Fenella’s have become increasingly common as organised crime groups pivot to stealing phones which can fetch up to £400 per stolen device.

Convicted phone snatcher Sonny Stringer was found to have stolen 24 phones in one hour. He was sentenced to two years in prison in August last year.

“It’s rich pickings in London,” said Paul Brennan, chairman of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association.

“No one thinks anything is going to happen to them, until it happens to them, that’s the problem. The chances of it happening are skyrocketing,” he said.

“It’s always on an electric bike because they can get away so quickly. They’re usually all dressed in black with balaclavas and hoods on.

“We have regular clients who would come in from all across the globe, but they’re now calling up and cancelling. They say they aren’t coming to London because it isn’t safe.”

According to Met Police figures, 117,211 phones were stolen during 2024, up 25% on the 2019 figure of 91,481.

The Met said snatchers on the streets of London are most often on lightweight, electric motorbikes, that reach speeds of up to 60mph (97kmh).

Because of their prevalence among the snatching gangs the Metropolitan Police have now invested in their own fleet of high-powered bikes to keep up with them.

“They hate us having them,” said Sgt Ryan Perry, from the force.

“They hate us being out on them. And from our point of view and the public’s point of view that’s excellent.

“If we can deter the offending then ideal. If they want to come out and play then we’ll be there to pursue them and put them in front of a court.”

The battle against the phone thieves is not just being fought on the ground.

“We are a phone snatcher’s worst nightmare,” said Andrew Lawless, tactical flight officer with the National Police Air Service (NPAS).

“Once we get overhead then the odds of them getting away dramatically reduce.

“We can see a lot out the window. We can use our camera and our tools to locate and stay with the suspects,” he said.

Sgt Glen Walker, base manager at NPAS London in Epping Forest, showed the BBC how the onboard cameras can zoom in on the faces of suspects.

“The mere presence of a helicopter being in that area can be a real deterrent,” he said.

“Obviously, we’re quite a big noisy aircraft and if we’re 1,000ft (300m) over Westminster, there’s been a spate of robberies, you’ll often get the suspect hear or see the helicopter and go to ground.”

Police are not alone in the fight against the phone snatchers in London.

Diego Galdino is a self-proclaimed “pickpocket hunter”.

A delivery driver by day, he started filming pickpocket moments after saying he witnessed them almost daily, before posting them online.

His account “PickPocketLondon” amassed millions of views in a matter of months.

Mr Galdino said it was his “instinct” to warn people when he spots thieves in action.

“I realise the crime around the city getting worse day by day,” he said.

“They cover their faces, they are always a couple of people and never alone, mainly they are in groups.

“When [a theft] happens, you can’t find the item because they have already passed it to someone else, so that’s why I always try to shout before they grab it,” he said.

Pickpockets have long been understood to be a transient population in the capital, effectively touring around capital cities and moving on when their faces start to become known by authorities.

The British Transport Police (BTP) has also seen a rise in phone thieves commuting into London every day, which officers say is to “carry out a day’s work”.

When the BBC joins a patrol at Finsbury Park Station, one British Transport Police officer points out a man walking past.

“The guy in the black baseball cap – we know him – he lives in Portsmouth,” the officer said. “He travels from Portsmouth to London every day to commit phone thefts. It is their full-time job.”

After following the suspect for a while at a distance he leaves the station without attempting a snatch. The officers are then called to look for another potential snatcher seen in the area.

BTP officers are often patrolling the transport network undercover, particularly around known hotspot areas like Finsbury Park.

“They’re doing it on an industrial level – to make a lot of money,” the officer said, adding many thieves fly into the UK from abroad, spend a few weeks in the UK to steal, before moving on.

But phone snatchers in the area are also home grown.

“In the last sort of two years there’s been a huge surge of guys from around this area that are part of a wider network of thieves – it’s probably in the region of about 600 people,” the officer said.

“We’ve certainly got images for at least 600 people that are in that gang.”