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25 June 2007
“If you buy a stolen mobile phone you’ll waste your money and look foolish”, is the central message of the Government’s new £500,000 national publicity campaign aimed at tackling mobile phone crime, unveiled today by Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland.
The radical advert designs use abbreviated ‘txt lngwij’ and play on the current trend for making pictures from punctuation and distributing them via mobiles and social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace. The message is blunt: now that the mobile phone industry blocks stolen phones within 48 hours, buying one is a waste of money.
Primarily aimed at 16-25 year-olds, the adverts will feature in magazines including Heat, Zoo and Nuts, on websites such as Ebay, Loot and Gumtree and be emblazoned on phone boxes and litter bins in youth social hotspots from this Monday 25 June.
Network subscriptions in the UK have increased from 17 million to 72 million in last eight years and although the majority of thefts occur when a handset is left unattended, mobile phones are linked to robbery. A phone is stolen in around 52 per cent of robberies and is the only item stolen in around 28 per cent. This campaign is another weapon in the fight against acquisitive and violent crime.
Crime Reduction Minister Baroness Scotland said:
“Effective and imaginative Government communications have played a key role in driving down crime by over 35 per cent over the last 10 years.
“This latest campaign is a great example of how we can fight crime at its root through a combination of partnership action and smart thinking. By working behind the scenes with the mobile phone industry to achieve ambitious targets on blocking stolen phones and by passing legislation outlawing re-programming a mobile, we have paved the way for this savvy campaign that promises to deliver real results.
“I want this campaign to take the bottom out of the illicit phone market entirely. Young people should be left in no doubt that stolen phones won’t work anymore. The prize will be a dramatic reduction in mobile phone crime overall making young people safer.”
Chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum Jack Wraith said:
"In July 2006, the UK mobile phone industry introduced a Crime Reduction Charter to tackle mobile handset theft. One of the commitments in that Charter was to block 80 per cent of mobile handsets across all UK networks within 48 hours of them being reported as stolen.
“Independent testing showed that we actually achieved 90 per cent. This, we believe, sends a clear message to any thief or potential buyer that stolen mobile phones will be blocked on all UK networks and, once blocked, will be useless."
The campaign is scheduled to run until mid-August.
Notes to Editors:
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Final executions of a selection of campaign materials can be requested from the Home Office press office on 020 7035 3832.
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In April it became an offence to offer to or agree to re-program a mobile phone. Previously police officers had to catch someone in the act of re-programming a mobile before arresting them. The new measure was part of the Violent Crime Reduction Act.
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Independent test results showed this year that the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum – made up of Government, industry and the police — made good its pledge to block 80 per cent of mobile phones, across all networks, within 48 hours of them being reported stolen, making them less attractive to criminals.
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Two per cent of mobile phone owners suffered a theft in the previous year — 800,000 people (British Crime Survey: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1007.pdf (new window)).
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Seven out of ten (69 per cent) mobile phone thefts were the result of handsets being left unattended (reference as above).
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Despite the fact that mobile phone subscriptions have increased dramatically, robbery has reduced by a fifth over the past five years.
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Advice on how to legitimately buy a second hand mobile phone will be available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/mobiles (new window).
