Phone companies given June 1 deadline to make devices less attractive to steal

Evening Standard

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley  has thrown down the gauntlet to the phone industry to take action over stolen devices by June 1 or face being forced to do so by law.He said that the Met will call on the Home Secretary to change laws to force phone companies to take action if necessary, and will encourage international law enforcement to do the same.Sir Mark told delegates at the International Mobile Phone Crime Conference in central London that he does not understand why the telecoms giants have not done more.

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00:06So I'm setting a clear public marker if by the 1st of June industry has not come to the

00:11table in a genuinely serious and solution-focused way with concrete commitments on stolen mobile

00:16phone, IMEI integrity, reset friction and parts governance and global blocking, the

00:23Mayor will formally write to the Home Secretary to ask that she legislates.

00:28We will set out that for nearly three years we have sought meaningful engagement with

00:32phone manufacturers and their responsible to date has not matched the scale of harm and

00:38risk to their customers.

00:39The inaction by industry means legislation would then be the only option available so

00:44that any device stolen in the UK can be blocked globally, automatically, irreversibly and fast.

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