Tackling worldwide trade in stolen mobiles

UK POLICE have launched a national unit to combat mobile phone crime amid suspicion organised crime gangs are exporting stolen phones abroad.

The National Mobile Phone Crime Unit, based in London, will gather information in a bid to crack down on the massive numbers of street robberies involving mobile phones.

It will also track crime gangs exporting phones snatched from robbery victims on British streets for sale in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Half of all street crime involves the theft of a mobile phone, with more than 160 mobile phone robberies every day in the UK.

The new £1 million unit will involve 50 police officers, detectives from forces across the country, immigration and customs and excise officers.

It will also involve a unique collaboration with the mobile phone industry, using the expertise of specialists.

The unit hopes to gather information about how criminals are operating and pass it on to police forces across the UK.

Scotland Yard’s Commander John Yates, who will be in charge of the unit, said mobile phone theft ranges from schoolboy bullies, to small-time "Fagin" types.

But the unit is discovering organised crime is also involved.

"In this country the telephones are subsidised by the industry, so a £300 phone costs £100 but you sign up for a contract," he said.

"Abroad it is completely different, a £300 telephone costs £300, that’s a lot of money in India. So there is an obvious market to export stolen telephones into India.

"We suspect a lot are being exported. There is a big international market."

Police co-operation with the industry has also shown stolen UK mobiles were even being used just over the channel in France.

Detectives think there may be a "cottage industry" behind exporting stolen UK mobiles abroad.

One operation has already recovered a briefcase full of phones - and the latest models, with video and photographic functions, are worth up to £800 each.

The numbers of people in the UK using a mobile has grown from 17 million in 1999 to over 50 million now.

Over 70 per cent of mobile phones in the world, including in the UK, use GSM, the Global System for Mobile Communications. BT Cellnet, Vodafone, One-2-One and Orange all use the system.

It enables mobile phones to be used across national boundaries for "roaming" so you don’t have to swap your phone if you go abroad.

But it means a phone stolen in the UK can be used anywhere where the GSM system operates, including Europe, Asia and Africa.

Although a criminal offence, it is a simple procedure to re-programme a stolen mobile phone so it can be re-used in the UK.

But those taken abroad do not even need to be re-programmed and simply swapping the SIM card will make them operational.

The ultimate hope is for an international database to be set up so a phone stolen anywhere in the world can be blocked from being used.