Where is your mobile phone most likely to be stolen?

If you're out and about in Leeds, guard your phone carefully, because a new study has revealed it's the place you are most likely to have your mobile phone stolen. The researchers identified the top ten mobile phone theft hotspots - and the places where thefts are rising.

The research was done by Protect Your Bubble, and looked at the percentage of phone insurance claims in each area that relate to theft. In Leeds, 21% of all claims are for theft -making it the place where you are most likely to have your phone stolen - by quite some margin.

This was followed by Salford, where 15% of claims are for theft. The researchers noted that the percentage had spiked dramatically from last year - so people in Salford need to be more careful than ever.

The third hotspot was London, where 10% of all claims are for theft. The good news for Londoners is that thefts in the capital have actually fallen as a percentage of claims in the past 6 months.

The rest of the top ten was made up of Belfast, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Brighton, Manchester and Wakefield.

Overall, thefts are slowing, but in ten cities they have been rising. These are: Salford, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Wakefield, Leicester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Wolverhampton and Swansea.

At the other end of the spectrum, people in Derby have the safest phones, with just 1.5% of all claims relating to theft. This was followed by Plymouth at 1.6% and Hull at 2%. The rest of the top ten safest areas for phones are Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Swansea, Wolverhampton, Luton, Stoke-on-Trent, and Milton Keynes.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-mobile%
Protect yourself

Wherever you live, there are vital steps you need to take to protect your phone. Some 54% of mobile phones are stolen while unattended, so when you are out in public, you should have your phone on you at all times. You should take particular care in pubs and bars - which are the most common places to have your phone stolen.

The researchers found that 13% of the time these unattended phones were locked away, so think carefully whether somewhere is secure before you leave your phone. They add that the workplace is the second most common place to have your phone taken, so if you are not allowed to have your phone on you at work, you should think very hard before taking it in.

Even when you have your phone on you, you need to take precautions, as 47% of all phones are taken from people who were carrying them at the time. Of these, more than a quarter are stolen from coat pockets, 12% from back trouser pockets, 12% from front trouser pockets, and 12% snatched from people's hands.

It's best to keep your phone in a hard-to-reach place, such as a pocket that zips up or buttons down, or an inner zipped pocket of your bag.

Some 16% of people have their phone taken just walking down the street, 13% when they are shopping, 11% on a bus and 11% on a train. It goes to show, that wherever you are, you need to be careful about being distracted - and try to stay aware of what's going on around you.

Even when you take precautions, there's always a risk. Stephen Ebbett, global director of Protect Your Bubble, recommends: "If you fall victim to a mobile thief, call your airtime provider and block your handset as fast as you can. You don't want to have to worry about covering the cost of unauthorised calls as well as replacing your phone. If you haven't made a note of it, ask your network for your handset's unique IMEI to pass on to the police when you report the theft. "

It's also worth making sure you are insured - whether through your home insurance or stand-alone cover.