Thieves will get the msg

12:43pm Thursday 7th June 2001

PLANS to use text messages to fight the ever-increasing number of mobile phone thefts have been welcomed by Lewisham Council.

The system, which sends messages to stolen mobile phones, had an immediate impact with a 42 per cent fall in thefts in a 12-week period when piloted by Dutch police.

Messages sent every three minutes say: “This phone is stolen. To buy or sell a stolen phone is an offence. Please take this phone to the nearest police station.” The messages continue until the phones are switched off or abandoned, which is monitored by the phone operators.

Lewisham Council's deputy for community safety, Councillor Les Eytle said: “Despite our success in reducing overall crime by six per cent, mobile phone crime is a significant proportion of street robberies.

“Before the Dutch initiative, we launched our own Protect Your Phone scheme which makes theft less likely and stolen phones easy to identify.”

Mobile phone thefts account for 39 per cent of all street robberies dealt with by the Meropolitan Police. To find out more about the council scheme, call 020 8314 8520.

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