Criminals target mobile phones as Staffordshire street robberies double

THE number of victims being robbed in the street for their cash and mobile phones has increased dramatically.

Staffordshire Police statistics show there were 25 incidents in June, but the number of muggings then rose sharply to a peak of 51 in September.

Figures show the average number of reports received per month since 2011 was 32.

The increase in the force-wide figures has been put down to a sharp rise in street robberies in the north of the county. Senior officers from Staffordshire Police have now set up a task force to tackle the problem.

Chief Inspector Martin Brereton, commander of Stoke-on-Trent Central Local Policing Team, said: 'Personal robberies in the north of the county do appear to have increased.

'We have been tasked to pull together a group, with representatives from all Staffordshire Policing groups, including detectives from CID.

'Second only to cash, what is being stolen is mobile phones, that seems to be what the offenders want. Smartphones are pretty much computers now and lots of people carry that sort of expensive technology around with them.

'We've come up with an action plan targeting offenders. We need to understand who is out there living within communities who may have previous convictions for this type of crime or similar.

'It could be juveniles who are getting involved in serious offending for the first time.'

Chief Inspector Brereton said victims tend to fit into three categories. Many are white males aged between 17 and 24 targeted by men of a similar age, often during a night out.

Younger victims aged between 10 and 16 are often mugged by older offenders at lunchtime or after school.

Less common are attacks on people aged between 50 and 80, where the suspects are aged between 20 and 30.

Staffordshire Police Chief Constable, Mike Cunningham, said: 'People are carrying more valuable items around with them now.

'We do know that offenders are moving from different crimes.

'We are seeing burglars going out shoplifting instead, because there is less risk and if they get caught it carries a lower sentence. However, personal robbery is going to attract a tough sentence because of the impact it has on the victim. Although this type of crime has gone up, we are still talking about low numbers.'

Personal safety expert Josh Nixon, of Stockton Brook, founding instructor of Evolutionary Self-Protection, offered people advice to protect themselves from criminals. He said: 'There are lots of different techniques you can use.

'I'd advise people to be confident, be aware of their personal space and what is going on around them, and don't be predictable, take a different route home from work sometimes.

'Don't deploy any force against someone after your property because it could have fatal consequences.'