Tackling the sale of stolen phones

Tackling the sale of stolen phones

Over the last two months, Maidstone's Town Centre Policing Team has visited every second-hand mobile phone shop in the town centre as part of ongoing work to tackle mobile phone crime and improve outcomes for victims.

During these visits, retailers' records and stock were inspected, with more than 200 mobile phones checked. As a result, we have already recovered and returned three phones that had been reported lost and identified a stolen phone taken from a customer in a local supermarket, which has now been returned to its rightful owner.

We are now working with second-hand mobile phone retailers across Maidstone to encourage the use of a police-approved system to check the status of mobile phones before they are bought or sold. These checks help identify phones that have been reported lost, stolen or blocked, making it harder for criminals to profit from mobile phone theft.

However, these checks are only truly effective if owners have recorded their device details.

That's why we're encouraging everyone to register their mobile phones with Immobilise, the free national property register endorsed by the National Police Chiefs' Council.

Every mobile phone has a unique serial number known as an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. Think of it as your phone's fingerprint. If your phone is lost or stolen and later recovered, the IMEI number can help police identify the rightful owner and return it.

Finding your IMEI number is easy: 📞 Simply dial *#06# on your mobile phone. 📋 Make a note of the number displayed. 🌐 Register it for free at immobilise.com

Registering your phone takes just a few minutes and could make all the difference if your device is ever lost or stolen. It also helps protect your phone from being sold on through second-hand retailers by making its status easier to identify during checks.

Where inspections of mobile phone shops identify concerns, we will work with retailers to improve compliance and prevent further offending. However, where businesses are found to be knowingly handling stolen property or repeatedly failing to carry out appropriate checks, enforcement action will be taken which will include civil penalties, arrests, prosecutions and, where appropriate, applications to the courts to shut the shop. Our aim is to protect legitimate businesses, safeguard consumers and make Maidstone an unattractive place for criminals to profit from stolen mobile phones.