When I moved to London two years ago, my friends who already lived in the capital shared various warnings. From the cost of housing to the oppressive heat of the Central Line in summer – they tempered my excitement at moving to the big city with sober, sensible advice. But more than anything, the one message I heard time and again was striking: don’t get your phone out on the street.

I’d read numerous articles about London’s growing phone-theft epidemic, but it wasn’t until I moved here that I realised quite how prevalent it had become. My brother-in-law’s phone was stolen within moments of him stepping out of his gym on the Strand. A friend’s was wrestled from her hands in Soho. And sure enough, it wasn’t long before it happened to me.

I’d stepped out of Oval tube station, in broad dayl

See Full Page