Housing minister Sally Jameson has described chasing down a thief who snatched her mobile phone on Lambeth Bridge. The former prison guard gave chase and shouted at the crook, who then dropped the device.
Minister's account of the incident
Ms Jameson told Times Radio: “[My phone] was taken from me and I did run after and shout at them. I'm not going to repeat the language I used... But they did throw the phone back to me, which I was pleased about.”
She added: “They just came from behind on a bike and snatched it out of my pocket. If I'm being honest, I don't know what went through my mind. It all happened just so quick, and I had a sort of immediate reaction because I was actually on the phone at the time. I had my headphones in, so I was still on a call. So I was pleased to get it back, but yeah, probably best I don't repeat the language.”
Phone theft statistics in London
A phone is stolen in London every seven to eight minutes. There were 71,391 recorded mobile phone thefts across the capital in 2025.
Police response and impact
The Met has deployed e-bikes, drones and live facial recognition in snatching hotspots in a bid to cut the number of thefts. Following a major crackdown and the doubling of patrols in the area, incidents halved in the West End, according to police.
Detectives said in July that the Met’s largest-ever operation against phone theft resulted in 13,000 fewer handsets being stolen across the city. Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley also said Apple was making it harder for criminals to make money from stolen devices. Sir Mark insisted thieves were being thwarted by the tech giant ensuring it was more difficult for them to reset stolen phones, so they were effectively “unusable bricks”.
“The interesting bit of data is we used to see even just a few months ago 80 per cent of stolen phones being reactivated,” he said last month. “Now it's about 20 per cent in recent weeks.”
