THE level of street crime in London is being distorted because 2,500 people each year are falsely reporting their lost mobile phones as stolen, police said yesterday.

More than 15 per cent of alleged street crimes investigated by officers in some areas of the capital have proved to be bogus.

In South Yorkshire, police say that they waste about £1 million a year investigating alleged mobile thefts that are revealed to be lies. Officers there estimate that as many as 20 per cent of alleged thefts of phones are fabricated by people making bogus insurance claims to upgrade their handsets.

Scotland Yard is initiating a campaign against false phone theft reporting this week. It begins as the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit, based in London, reports that the theft of handsets has fallen for the first time since it began collecting data. However, 328 phones are still reported stolen in the capital every day, half from the under-18s.

Teams targeting mobile phone theft, which accounts for 11 per cent of crime in London, have seized 5,000 handsets in raids on shops in the past six months.

Previous investigations have revealed that shop assistants in some mobile phone outlets encourage customers to make false reports of theft. They then earn commission as the customer makes a fraudulent insurance claim and upgrades to a new model.

Fixed-penalty notices being tested around the country allow officers to issue an £80 on-the-spot fine for making a false crime report or wasting police time. The latest round of advertising for the Safer Streets campaign will emphasise the dangers of and penalties for lying to police.

Commander Brian Moore, the head of the Metropolitan Police territorial policing crime directorate, said that false reporting had reached unacceptable levels. “Many people who falsely report their mobile phone as stolen don’t think they are in fact committing a crime and don’t think about the consequences,” he said.

“Those people who falsely report any lost property as stolen are taking police resources away from genuine victims. On top of diverting our officers from dealing with genuine victims, false reports can overinflate the levels of robbery in London and make the public feel unsafe to be on the streets.

“We tackle robbery through an intelligence-led approach by deploying our officers to areas with high rates of robbery. This distorted picture means that our officers may not be in the right areas.”

The mobile phone industry has been working with the police to block stolen phones and to try to reduce false reporting levels.

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