The Government must introduce new legislation to make the reprogramming of a mobile phone's identity number a criminal offence if mobile phone theft is to be eradiated, an expert on the issue has said.
Mr Andrew Kelly, Director of Corporate Affairs with mobile phone company Meteor and chairman of the Wireless Industry Group in IBEC, was speaking as the three main service providers in the State move to tighten their security systems against phone theft.
Meteor, O2 and Vodafone are confident that, with the linking-up of their International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) databases over the next few weeks, it will become "pointless" to steal mobile phones in this country.
Each mobile phone handset has its own 15-digit IMEI number, usually found under the battery. These numbers will be held at the central database - Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) - and when a phone is stolen or lost its IMEI number can be barred, rendering the handset effectively useless. The block on the number can be lifted if the handset is subsequently found.
The three companies have been putting central databases in place for their own customers' phones, but these meant the block they put on stolen phones was only effective if someone attempted to use the handset with a SIM card registered with the same company.
Linking the databases means a bar will be effective across all three networks.
Though Garda figures are not kept on mobile phone theft, the companies estimate up to 2,000 are stolen here each week. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, earlier this year expressed concern at the rising incidence of the crime.
A Garda spokesman said last night it was an under-reported crime and that anything that would "reduce it would be very welcome". The Garda say it is particularly difficult to prevent as people tend to leave phones lying around bar and restaurant tables more freely than they would a wallet. They are also easily grabbed, often violently, from someone while using the phone on the street.
The Garda spokesman said victims were across the age spectrum, though a British Home Office study showed schoolchildren were five times as likely as others to have their phones stolen - often by other youths, while under 18-year-olds accounted for 48 per cent of victims.
Mr Kelly is warning however that the establishment of the CEIR will not of itself eradicate mobile phone theft. "It is relatively easy to reconfigure a handset's IMEI number and make the set usable again," he told The Irish Times.
He is calling for a similar piece of legislation as was rushed through parliament in Britain in May last year and which came into force there last November. Phone theft is thought to account for up to 50 per cent of street crime in London. "We [the Wireless Industry Group] have written to the relevant Departments - Justice and Communications - in the last few weeks and we will be hoping they respond positively. To really make this new database robust we need this legislation," said Mr Kelly.
The British Mobile Phone (Reprogramming) Act made the reconfiguration of an IMEI number punishable with up to five years in prison. The reconfiguration of a phone's IMEI number enables the thieves to sell the handset or to dump them on foreign markets.
The new scheme will also go some way to eradicating phone insurance fraud. At the moment it is possible to report a phone lost or stolen when it actually has not been, and to get a replacement at little cost. Insurance companies will now be able to stamp this out by blocking all phone handsets reported lost or stolen.
