A businessman has revealed how he chased down a phone snatcher and hurled himself onto the thief’s bike after he had his iPhone 12 stolen outside the Houses of Parliament.
Riccardo Tordera, 36, sprinted after the thug who mugged him as he was leaving a dinner in Parliament, in Westminster, central London, at around 9.15pm on November 4.
As the phone thief launched a quick getaway towards Parliament Square, Mr Tordera threw himself onto the back wheel, sending the criminal crashing to the ground.
Although the thief threw the phone back at him before escaping, Mr Tordera had to be rushed over Westminster Bridge to St Thomas’ Hospital after suffering serious injuries from getting his hand trapped in the spokes of the wheel.
Mr Tordera, the director of policy and government relations for The Payments Association, was left needing 12 stitches after the metal spokes horrifically ripped up his wrist and hand.
It comes amid a rise in quick-thinking Londoners fighting back by snatching their devices back from marauding e-bike gangs.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline after being discharged from hospital, Mr Tordera said: ‘You can’t walk in London with your phone anymore. It’s never been like this. There’s a huge increase in this and something must be done.
‘You walk around Parliament and you feel like that should be the safest place in the world. If it happens outside Parliament, it can happen everywhere, it is not safe.’
Riccardo Tordera (pictured), 36, was left needing 12 stitches in his wrist and hand after confronting the thug who mugged him in Westminster, central London
The businessman was left with injuries too graphic to publish in their entirety. He needed 12 stitches
Mr Tordera had just finished having dinner at Parliament and was walking to Westminster Tube station when his phone was swiped by Portcullis House.
He was texting while he was walking to Westminster Tube station when the thief snatched his phone at around 9.15pm.
The phone snatcher then yelled ‘got it’ and Mr Tordera was later told there was a gang of four or five others involved as well.
Recalling the terrifying incident, he told MailOnline: ‘I realised immediately and saw the guy on the bike riding off. I thought ‘No, I want my phone back’, so I just ran after him.
‘He was going very fast because he was on the bike and then the only thing I could do was to grab the the wheel of the bike, which I did so he lost control and fell.
‘But the problem is that my hand entered the spokes. The spokes sucked my hand in, and then the gear did the rest. The cuts were very bad, they were very deep.
‘I think I was very lucky because it could have been much worse, but there was lots of blood. The guy said, ‘I’ll give it back, I’ll give it back’ and then he threw it on the floor.
‘I then withdrew my hand from the bike’s wheel and then he just escaped.’
Mr Tordera had his phone stolen outside the kiosk on the left, right opposite Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
Mr Tordera was urgently operated on at St Thomas’ Hospital on the other side of Westminster Bridge
Mr Tordera then ran into the Tesco shop opposite Big Ben where he asked for help and he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
‘I think I’ve been very lucky because if the gear of the spoke would have cut my veins then you and I probably would have not been talking now.’
Mr Tordera was discharged from St Thomas’ Hospital at 4pm the next day after having 12 stitches put in.
Speaking days after Labour MP Chris Webb also had his phone snatched, Mr Tordera said it was ‘outrageous’ that this could happen in outside Parliament.
He added: ‘The police were amazing but I don’t think they have the powers to tackle this kind of crime effectively. This is not anymore a kind of crime that affects just gangs in their own territories. This is everywhere and hits everyone.
‘It’s out of control and makes London very unsafe. The Mayor of London should think deeply on how this city has evolved. It’s not good, someone must stop this. Or what are we waiting for?’
It comes as Londoners are starting to grow wise to phone snatchers as they circle upmarket areas of the capital, prowling for their next victim.
Speeding around corners and catching locals and tourists off guard, they pounce within seconds, leaving unwitting victims with zero time to react before they realise what has happened.
As the crisis reaches breaking point, some Londoners have started adapting.
A slew of videos have surfaced online of would-be victims beating the phone thieves by snatching the devices back off them or managing to hold on, sending the e-bike gangs on their way empty handed.
This woman managed to step back and hold onto her phone as a phone snatcher targeted her
These two would-be victims also managed to hold onto their devices as gangsters swooped on them
CCTV captured a bike theft in July on Park Lane when another unsuspecting man had his mobile snatched in broad daylight by a crook in all black
A woman can only look on, stunned, after an e-bike rider snatched a phone from her hand on Oxford Street
A duo of phone thieves seen on New Bond Street in London – as they snatch a man’s phone from his hand as he films
Among those who managed to hold onto their device is presenter Nicky Campbell who nearly had his phone nicked near Oxford Circus. The veteran broadcaster managed to grab his phone back after it was snatched from his hand before shouting ‘f*** you’ at the thief.
Unfortunately, these quick-thinking pedestrians are still in the minority, and gangs of phone snatchers are still at large, cashing in across the capital.
A number of MPs are now reported to have fallen victim to the muggers, who are typically captured on camera stealing devices around the upmarket Mayfair area and along Oxford Street.
The Government Whips’ Office has issued an edict to elected members warning them to be on their guard in the vicinity of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster after ‘a number’ of MPs were deprived of their mobiles.
Even as the Met cracks down on the phone snatchers and ministers urge phone firms to make their devices impossible to re-sell, the thieves continue to operate undeterred.
In a recent report by the Mail it was revealed that workers in Westminster, central London, claim phone theft happens daily.
Criminals’ most common tactic is to drive past on a bike or moped and grab the phone while their victim is distracted – such as when they are taking a photo or checking their messages at a traffic light.
Figures collated by local news site Southwark News show that Westminster is the worse area in London for phone snatching – with 22,253 incidents reported in the year leading up to September 2024.
That equates to 85.4 thefts per every 1,000 people.
The rise in thefts is being fueled by demand for second-hand phones in the electronics hub of Shenzhen.
After being shipped into the city by criminal accomplices exploiting its lax approach to enforcing laws around stolen goods, the handsets are sold second hand if they can be unlocked and returned to factory settings.
If they cannot be sold whole, they are dismantled and the component parts – such as the screen, motherboard and speaker – used for repairs or even pieced together into entire new handsets.
Shenzhen is located in the south of China next to the border with Hong Kong. Known as the country’s ‘Silicon Valley’ due to its expertise in electronics, it is also home to large retail outlets selling used consumer goods.
Figures have shown that a mobile phone is reported as stolen in London every six minutes.
There were almost 91,000 phones snatched from Londoners in 2022, at an average of 248 a day, with only two per cent of the stolen devices recovered.
Criminals often target pedestrians in busy locations such as outside stations, shopping centres or concert venues, and usually approach from behind, meaning victims aren’t aware of how vulnerable their phone is until it’s too late.
The worst-hit borough was the City of Westminster, Camden was the second worst affected, with 4,806 incidents, followed by Southwark (4,376), Hackney (2,761), Newham (2,585), Lambeth (2,394) and Islington (2,117).
In London as a whole more than 52,000 phones were stolen last year.
