The London Underground line most likely to have your phone stolen - full list

Passengers are most at risk of phone theft on the Victoria Line, startling new figures have revealed. Official figures obtained from British Transport Police demonstrate the scale of the London Underground's phone theft epidemic, which has seen instances of thefts increase by 33% since 2023.

In 2024, there were 15,225 thefts of all kinds on the London Underground network, up from 11,363 in 2023. The Victoria Line saw 2,034 phone thefts in 2024, making it the most dangerous London Underground line in the capital for the crime. The Central Line was a close second, with 1,920 incidents, closely followed by the Jubilee Line with 1,804.

The Piccadilly and Northern Lines completed the top five with 1,744 and 1,202 incidents respectively.

The figures, obtained by the Telegraph, highlight the prevalence of phone theft on the London Underground and the capital in general.

The release comes just days after the Metropolitan Police disrupted an international network suspected of smuggling tens of thousands of stolen phones from the UK in its largest operation to tackle phone theft in London.

The criminal organisation is believed to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months - up to 40% of all phones stolen in the capital, the Met said on Monday.

The force launched Operation Echosteep in December 2024 after a box containing about 1,000 iPhones being shipped to Hong Kong was found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport.

Officers discovered almost all the phones had been stolen, police said.

They intercepted further shipments and used forensic evidence found on the packages to identify the suspects.

A man was charged with handling stolen goods after being stopped with 10 suspected stolen phones at Heathrow Airport on September 20, the force added.

Officers also discovered two iPads, two laptops and two Rolex watches.

Further inquiries revealed the same man had travelled between London and Algeria more than 200 times in two years, police said.

Two other men aged in their 30s were arrested three days later in North-east London on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan thanked the force for "responding to Londoners' concerns", with the Met adding robberies and thefts in London have dropped by 13% and 14% respectively so far this year.

"This is, without doubt, the largest operation of its kind in UK history, and it was humbling to see first-hand how the Met are going after the leaders of international smuggling gangs as well as the street robbers and snatchers fuelling this industrial-scale crime," Sir Sadiq said.

"Thanks to our record funding, the Met are boosting visible neighbourhood policing across London and deploying specialist operations in hotspot areas like Westminster and the West End, where nearly 40% of phone thefts occur.

"This crackdown has already led to hundreds of arrests and thousands of handsets seized, contributing to a 13% drop in theft and robbery across London in the first quarter of this year."