Nokia phones are the most frequently stolen mobiles in the country, reveals a new report.
A research team from the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at Loughborough University has compiled data from 112,093 crimes in London in 2005 that involved mobile phone theft.
Their analysis shows that the Nokia 6230 mobile was the most often stolen, making up 15.4% of thefts, followed by the Samsung D500 at 8.2% and the Motorola Razr at 5.4%.
Nokia mobiles made up half of stolen mobiles overall; Samsung was a distant second at 13.6%, while Sony Ericsson phones came in third at 13.3%.
Jen Mailley, Shaun Whitehead, and Graham Farrell, the authors of the report that was published in Justice of the Peace magazine, are quick to caution that the chart table did not take into account volume sales figures, which would provide more depth to the numbers.
“It could simply be that the Nokia 6230 was the most commonly sold phone rather than it is more likely to be attractive for thieves or owned by robbery victims”, the authors said.
They also compiled a separate table for thefts in December 2005 to show how mobile phone theft rates for different models changed throughout the year, which may be an indicator of shifting popularity in sales as well as blackmarket trading.
In December, the Razr moved up to the second most-frequently stolen phone, while the Samsung D500 fell to third.
Sony Ericsson’s K750i and W800i moved into the top 10 in December.