Police move to cut false handset theft claims

Police in London, UK mounted a series of raids on retailers suspected of involvement in mobile phone insurance fraud. Rogue sales staff have apparently advised customers who have lost their mobile phones to report them as stolen, so that they can claim on the insurance and get a new handset.
The move comes after studies estimated that of the 70,000 reported handset thefts last year, as many as 40,000 could have been bogus reports, allowing the customer to make a fake claim on their insurance for a replacement handset.

Police have arrested twelve retail staff in different shops - when shops were dealing with customers - to give maximum exposure to the raids. Arrests took place at Phones 4u, Carphone Warehouse and the retail outlets operated by the four network operators as well as some independent retailers. Undercover police had visited 98 shops prior to the raid to decide which were the worst cases of fraud.

The operation, codenamed ‘Pavilion’, was devised after a pilot scheme to study mobile thefts in Marylebone found 15% of reports were false. As most insurance policies do not cover loss of a handset, only theft - retail staff were routinely encouraging the customers to make a claim of theft and report it to the police. Despite warnings from the police to dissuade the practice, only The Link and Dixon have apparently increased staff training in this area.

Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin, in charge of the operation, said: "These people encouraging false claims of theft are doing London a great disservice. There is a perception that the capital is riddled with street offenders and that has an impact on tourists and street safety.

"We want to stop these false reports because this is a crime that is frightening people.”

(Courtesy of cellular-news)