New data on the mobile phone crime suggests Gloucester is relatively safe for phone theft.

With new police data showing phone theft in the city is down to its lowest level in five years, there were just 39 reported incidents in the city during 2022 - a drop of 35% on the previous year.

Ryan Leston, founder and director of Get Phone Repairs, an intermediary service for customers and local phone repair shops, said the fall amounted to a total of £13,845.

Ryan told Punchline: "As you might expect, phone theft is rising across the UK, with a total of 135,147 incidents across the United Kingdom in 2022."

Altogether, he said the value of stolen handsets totalled more than £47 million.

But he added: "According to our data, there were a total of 39 phone thefts recorded in Gloucester in 2022, so on average one phone was stolen in Gloucester every nine days".

Crunched differently, the data shows 1 in 3,395 Gloucester residents had a phone stolen that year, but Gloucester is markedly bucking the trend: data collated from UK police forces (excluding Scotland) showed England saw 2.81 thefts per thousand people – at least 365 phones stolen every single day.

Northern Ireland recorded 0.53 thefts per thousand people – equivalent to 2.7 phones stolen every day – while Wales saw just 0.2 phone thefts per thousand people, equating to just 1.8.

The most common method of theft, said Ryan, is pickpocketing and table surfing.

"Police forces all over the country are backing local initiatives to tackle this rising crime, but the best way to avoid being part of our stats is to take preventative measures. Avoid using your mobile in crowded areas and you'll stand a much better chance of hanging onto it," Ryan added.

"Thieves are also far more likely to target people they spot with high-end devices. So keep that smartphone out of sight!"

You can find more information on securing your phone here .