Clause 42 - Offering or agreeing to re-programme a mobile telephone
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
8:00 pm
Hazel Blears (Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety), Home Office; Salford, Labour)
I am surprised about the amendment, because the Bill would create a new offence of offering or agreeing to reprogramme a mobile phone. The hon. Lady is right; there have not been as many prosecutions under the existing legislation as we would have wanted. That is because offences are quite difficult to prove. The Bill will make it easier to bring prosecutions to deal with a problem that is significant. If mobile phones can be reprogrammed, that is an incentive for people to steal them. We want to make sure that that cannot happen.
Reprogramming creates a market for stolen mobile phones. It is an offence, but usually reprogramming occurs behind closed doors and out of sight. The only way, currently, to establish whether an offence has been committed is by test purchasing—asking for a mobile phone to be reprogrammed. Often the person concerned will offer to reprogramme it, or agree to have it reprogrammed, and will ask the undercover police officer to come back later and collect it. The police can thus obtain proof that the phone has been reprogrammed, but cannot prove who did it. If offering to reprogramme a phone is made an offence, it will be possible to prosecute many more people. That is how the offences are carried out. If the police are to tackle reprogramming effectively that approach will be crucial.