THUGS are taking over the streets of London's most popular tourist hotspots snatching £50million worth of phones last year.

Data obtained by The Sun reveals the worst hit areas across Greater London, with one popular tourist hotspot hit by as many as 37 mobile thefts daily on average.

The Metropolitan Police has warned that gangs are pocketing millions, with phone thefts "on an industrial scale".

Almost 80,000 handsets were stolen last year - that's up by about 16,000 on 2023.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, tourist hotspots tend to rank highest, which is especially worrying for anyone planning on venturing into the capital over the summer.

However, hundreds of incidents were reported in typically residential areas up and down Greater London, too.

We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale, fuelled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad

Met Police

The data from the Met Police is broken down in wards and includes both robbery offences and theft offences.

It doesn't include areas represented by the City of London Police.

Among these, the West End comes out as the worst place for phone thefts, with a staggering 13,578 cases logged - the equivalent to 37 handsets every day on average.

St James's - which covers areas around Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and all the way along the famous Stand - ranked second with some 6,693 recorded incidents.

Bloomsbury, Holborn & Covent Garden, Borough & Bankside, as well as Waterloo & South Bank also clocked up more than 1,000 reports in total.

Other popular areas to be targeted include Hyde Park with 550, Stratford Olympic Park with 865 and Camden Town with 906.

The Met Police told The Sun that criminals behind the problem are making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad.

"We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale," a Met Police spokesperson told The Sun.

"In response, we have increased patrols in hotspot areas while officers are using phone-tracking data and intelligence to pursue those responsible.

"By intensifying our efforts, we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phones stolen in the capital.

"The Met is also working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.

"We are reminding victims to report their phone as stolen as soon as possible to maximise the chance of catching the perpetrator, too often thefts are reported hours or days later."

There are many obvious ways to avoid falling victim to phone snatching gangs, such as being aware of your surroundings and putting your phone away when you've finished using it.

But there are settings on your mobile you need to switch on.

Primarily, you should have location tracking activated to help police pinpoint where your mobile is.

On iPhone, it's known as Find My and on Android it's Find My Device.

You can find these within the settings.

There's also another important trick to try available on Android.

It may not result in you getting your phone back, but can prevent thieves causing more devastation by raiding through your banking apps to steal money.

Theft Detection Lock cleverly uses motion sensors to pick up on the sort of movements associated with a phone being snatched and whisked away.

When it's detected, your phone automatically locks so criminals can't dig around your device.

While iPhone doesn't have the same feature, there is Stolen Device Protection.

This kicks in when you're away from familiar locations like your home and work.

It means that if someone steals your device while you're out and about after seeing your passcode, they can't make "critical" changes.

So accessing your stored passwords and credit cards will require Face ID or Touch ID. There's no option to use a passcode instead.

And there's also a Security Delay feature.

So if you want to change your Apple Account passcode, you'll have to wait an hour and then perform a second Face ID or Touch ID scan.

To turn it on, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, and turn Stolen Device Protection on.