Police have warned that there has been a sharp increase in mobile phone theft in London over the past two years, as thieves focus on high-end smartphones such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 that are now widely used.

The figures released by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) show there were just shy of 10,000 phone thefts in December 2012, up from 8,000 in December 2010.

The rise in thefts was also evidenced by the fact in a six-month period between April and September, 2012 a staggering 28,800 iPhones were reported stolen in London - the equivalent of 158 iPhones a day. Overall a total number of 56,680 mobiles were stolen during the period, equating to 341 phones per day.