Revealed: 18 of 20 pickpocketing hotspots in London

With travel uncertainty still playing a part in people’s holiday plans and guidance requiring travellers to pay for lateral flow and PCR tests to move around the globe, it’s no surprise that search interest continues to rise for places to holiday in the UK1comparethemarket.com reveals that there have been 138,722 pickpocketing thefts reported during 2019 and 2020 in the UK alone.

According to the figures, the top 20 worst places for pickpocket theft are:

Rank

Location

 2019

2020

Total theft

1

Westminster

19,690

7,834

27,524

2

Camden

6,313

3,585

9,898

3

Southwark

4,217

2,147

6,364

4

Islington

3,509

2,449

5,958

5

Hackney

3,332

2,402

5,734

6

Newham

2,609

2,498

5,107

7

Lambeth

2,677

1,323

4,000

8

Tower Hamlets

2,203

1,293

3,496

9

Leeds

2,361

1,071

3,432

10

Kensington And Chelsea

2,372

912

3,284

11

Haringey

1,881

1,264

3,145

12

Redbridge

991

838

1,829

13

Brent

1,024

689

1,713

14

Hammersmith And Fulham

1,068

642

1,710

15

Barnet

1,084

616

1,700

16

Waltham Forest

955

723

1,678

17

Sheffield

1,043

493

1,536

18

Enfield

863

663

1,526

19

Ealing

942

551

1,493

20

Wandsworth

845

601

1,446

London tops the list as the most searched for city destination for UK travellers2, and travel demand to the capital has increased by 181% in the last year3. However, Westminster alone saw a staggering 19,690 thefts in 2019, although that number decreased by over 60% in 2020, no doubt due to the number of people at home because of Covid restrictions. Other areas that saw significant decreases include Sheffield, Leeds and Kensington and Chelsea in London.

During 2020, the British Transport Police reported a near 50% increase in thefts in Manchester and an increase of 200%  in Norfolk!

Although in ninth place overall, Leeds tops the table as the worst Northern city for pickpocketing.