Prolific phone fraudsters jailed, as Met steps up efforts to tackle smartphone thefts

Four men have been jailed for handling more than 5,000 stolen phones, and two of the group have been convicted for spending thousands of pounds from their victims’ bank accounts, after they were caught following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

Over an 18-month period the group handled phones that had been stolen from across London and two of the men made purchases or took out loans using the devices, with the cost of their crimes totalling £5.1 million. Officers believe many of the devices were then sold abroad.

Some victims had thousands of pounds transferred out of their account, others had payments come out for designer clothes worth hundreds.

Sentenced today were:

- Zakaria Senadjki, 31 (03.04.93) of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods, conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and possessing/controlling ID with improper intention. He was sentenced to eight years.

- Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, 25 (18.12.98) of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, and was sentenced to four years and eight months.

- Nazih Cheraitia, 34 (02.04.90) of Wales Farm Road, Acton was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and possess/control ID document with improper intention. He was sentenced to three years and five months.

-Riyadh Mamouni, 25 (06.01.99) of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and sentenced to two years and eight months.

The group were tracked down by local officers from Lambeth and Southwark after multiple victims of theft and robbery reported they had tracked their stolen devices to two main London addresses.

Extensive work was then completed by officers to identify those involved, including investigating two blocks of flats to identify the suspects. The Met’s Operation Ringtone uses tracking devices in phones to be able to locate stolen items. Following the successful investigation by local officers, warrants took place in the early hours of 26 February.

Commander Owain Richards, from the Metropolitan Police, said: “I want to commend the borough based local officers involved for their excellent work in tracking down these individuals and ensuring they were brought to justice.

“We do not underestimate the impact these crimes have on Londoners and are doing all we can to tackle phone thefts. This includes increased policing in hotspot areas and making better use of technology.

“However we need the phone companies to play their part and make it more difficult for criminals to re-sell these stolen devices. The Met will be speaking with them in the coming weeks to push this issue even further.”

During their search, officers found 170 phones believed to have been stolen and they calculate thousands more were victims to the group.

However, officers have not been able to track down the owners of all the phones seized as not all were reported as stolen or their correct IMEI number had not been provided so the phones could not be identified.

Today, the Met is urging anyone who has had a lost or stolen phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered phones can be restored.

Phone users should take simple steps to further protect themselves from fraud, by ensuring they have a strong password, two-factor authentication and turn off message previews so thieves cannot see any messages about reset or log in codes when phones are locked and ensuring they have written down and safely stored their IMEI number.

Last year, more than 64,000 mobile phones were reported to the police as stolen in London, through theft or robbery – double the previous two years.

As part of the New Met for London the Met is taking action to clamp down on phone thieves, with proactive and neighbourhood policing teams increasing patrols, including in plain clothes and working with local businesses to share information and bring perpetrators to justice.