Islington has experienced a bigger surge in mobile phone thefts than any other borough in the capital.
Figures released today show there were 2,452 thefts in the north London area in 2012 — more than double the rate the previous year.
Westminster experienced the highest number of phone snatches overall with 3,313 cases. Hackney also saw a large rise of thefts, with 1,409 in 2012 compared with 951 in 2011. However, figures from the Met show that police prosecuted only 56 of the reported thefts.