Mobile Phone Thefts at Festivals

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/26/004253/X

Version Date: 23/02/2026

The Performance Analysis Department has provided the following information:

To obtain the below information, searches were undertaken on the Niche Crime Universe for crimes of Theft that contain the keywords “festival” or “bestival” within the Occurrence Enquiry Log. The results were then reviewed to determine if the theft took place at a festival, what was taken, and if it was recovered.

1.The number of reported mobile phone thefts at each festival in your area for the years:
2025 – 4
2024 – 1
2023 – 3

2. The number of total thefts, not limited to mobile devices, at each festival in your area for the years:
2025 – 12
2024 – 7
2023 – 11

3. If available, please also provide:
•           The number of stolen phones that were later recovered or found for each year from each Festivals

2025 – 1 (found by owner)
2024 – 0
2023 – 0

•           A breakdown of the models of stolen phones (if this information is recorded) for each year from each festival.

Please note, an occurrence can have more than one phone stolen. This is why, for example, there are four cases of reported phone theft in 2025 but a breakdown of five phone models.

2025:

2024:

2023:

*Please note, Festival in this context refers to any music, food or drink festivals, harvest festivals, flower festivals, horse racing festivals, festivals of transport, etc organised within the area throughout the year.
*data based on a keyword search 'FESTIVAL' in the Log Entry text, mentioned in the incident, or description or Crime MO where the Crime Group is 'THEFT' is appropriate for this request