I suppose such pointless and expensive exercises go on constantly, hence Jack Straw's move last week to shift the pressure to mobile phone companies. Thefts are fuelling the rise in street muggings. Ergo, the manufacturers must improve product security. If it worked for cars, it will work for phones. Another Home Office winner, except that car thieves are specific in their targets.
Teenage muggers are less focused.
The real object for the bully-boy element is not to cut a resale deal or do something clever with a phone smart card but to assert power and secure a trophy. Anything would do. At the sinister end of the spectrum, police now surmise that the murder of Damilola Taylor was part of a new pattern in which attackers 'mark' their victims with a slash wound denoting the stamp of the controller on the controlled. This week, Damilola will be laid to rest in a private funeral. Something must be done on youth crime.