South Yorkshire Police have reported that a stolen mobile phone that had been registered on the national UK database, Immobilise has resulted in the arrest of a man in Doncaster.
A Twenty five year old man was arrested on Tuesday, 28 September for being drunk and disorderly in the Town Centre.
He was brought into the police station by Acting Police Sergeant Sharon Wood and PC Steve Roberts from the Town Centre Safer Neighbourhood Team. They checked his mobile phone against the Immobilise database and it was identified as being stolen. He admitted he had stolen the phone from a pub in Thorne last year, which when they checked had been reported to the police at this time. He was charged with theft and drunk and disorderly behaviour.
Police are hoping this result will encourage more people to register their belongings with Immobilise. It is the UK’s national property register, which allows people to create secure and private portfolios online for their personal property.
It is not just phones that can be registered any belongings that have a serial number including electrical items such as televisions and cameras can all be registered.
Inspector Jakki Hardy said:
We hope this result will encourage people to register their property on the Immobilise database. If this phone hadn’t been registered it would have been very difficult to know it was stolen and reunite it with the owner.
Police officers in Doncaster have also been targeting shops across Doncaster including CEX, Cash Generator and small mobile phone shops to check for any stolen mobile phones. Officers use scanners to scan the barcode on the back of the phones, which retrieves data from the IMEI number, and states if the phone is lost, stolen or blocked.
Inspector Jakki Hardy added:
Registering goods also acts as a deterrent to opportunistic thieves as they are unable to sell stolen property as easily if it has been registered. We will continue to do these checks and identify any stolen property.
To read the source story in full please go to: South Yorkshire Police