The mobile phone recycling industry raised its media profile in the UK substantially last week when BBC News ran the story regarding the Government clampdown on recycling mobile phones.
Charlo Carabott, Managing Director of Mazuma Mobile was interviewed on BBC Breakfast regarding the industry’s efforts to stop criminals profiting from mobile phone theft. 100,000 stolen mobiles worth about £4 million are sold every year. Thieves sell stolen phones to mobile recyclers because handsets blocked in the UK will still work overseas.
Mobile phone recycling firms pay users cash for their old mobiles and these are then usually sold overseas to the third world. To stop the criminals being able to profit from stealing mobiles, the UK Government has drawn up a strategy that the recycling industry has agreed to adhere to that will prevent thieves from selling stolen phones to the recycling companies. Recyclers will check whether the handsets are on the National Mobile Phone Register database and report whether they have been stolen.
90% of the industry, over 15 firms, have agreed to check phones on the national database, which is linked to the police database of mobiles reported stolen, a voluntary public register and the industry database of blocked mobiles. Recycling companies will refuse to buy any phones discovered to be stolen and then pass the attempted seller’s details to the police.
Selling mobile phones to recyclers has become lucrative to criminals because recent smartphones can fetch as much as £200. Many mobile phone recyclers already had systems in place to prevent thieves profiting in this way, but the new strategy will ensure best practice is adopted industry-wide.