Met warns against false theft reports
The Metropolitan Police has warned Londoners that making false reports of theft, when an item has in fact been lost, is a crime.
It estimates that 2,500 people a year claim that their mobile phone has been stolen when it has in fact been lost, misplaced or broken.
It is a condition of many mobile phone insurance policies that a crime number is quoted when any claim is made.
Highlighting the problem, as part of the Met’s Safer Streets campaign, Commander Brian Moore said: “The levels of false reporting we are seeing in London are unacceptable.
“On top of diverting our officers from dealing with genuine victims false reports can over inflate 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 our officers may not be in the right areas.
“My message is clear falsely reporting anything to police is a crime and we will deal with you.”
In a strongly worded statement, he warned that: “Those people that falsely report any lost property as stolen are taking police resources away from genuine victims.”
The campaign is being launched in conjunction with the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF). Its chairman, Jack Wraith, said: “This is another initiative that demonstrates the commitment of police and industry to address the problems of false reporting and to encourage customers to correctly report mobile phones as having been lost.
“Thus reducing the resources that both the industry and police have to allocate to investigating non crime.”
