A former model who founded her own skincare business has become the latest star to fall victim to London’s phone thieves.
Amanda Cronin, 57, was walking to her home in Belgravia from an evening out at the One Sloane hotel, Sloane Square, last month when her iPhone 15 was snatched by a hooded man on an e-bike at around 9pm.
She told the Daily Mail: “I'd had a really beautiful day. I'd been to a beautiful girl's lunch, so I was in such a lovely mood.
“I was just about to turn into my street, and this guy on a bike, they just come out of nowhere, completely silent, and off they go, just whisk your phone out of your hand.
“Obviously there's a great relief that I wasn't hurt or pushed over. I had a Gucci bag, they didn't want that. I even had a couple of rings on because I'd been out to a very glamorous event that day.”
Ms Cronin said the ordeal was “upsetting”, but managed to cancel her bank cards using her daughter's phone and had a replacement set up within days. She has since ordered a strap to keep her phone around her neck.
Despite being caught up in the crimewave sweeping London, the Real Housewives' star remains defiant in her love for the capital she calls home.
She said: “I've been in London since the early 90s, so I'm very pro-London and very pro-UK.
“You do need to have your wits about you. There's always been robbery and knife crime in all the time I've been here - but we've had pickpockets in London since Oliver Twist!”
Ms Cronin previously appeared in the Channel 4 documentary, The Millionairess and Me in 2022, before she returned to our screens this year to star in The Real Housewives of London.
At 50, she also launched her skincare brand, Amanda Caroline, which sells high-end products like £150 Haute Lift Serum.
This comes as London remains Europe’s phone snatch capital with 80,000 devices stolen last year – one every six minutes.
Model Alexa Chung, 42, fought off an opportunist who tried to grab her phone out of her hand mid conversation.
Annabel Croft, 59, had her handset taken “clean out of her hands” by a masked thief on a bicycle outside King’s Cross station.
Socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, 49, was left shaken after being mugged for mobile phone in Pimlico by an e-bike rider.
Ex-Bond girl Rosamund Pike, 46, was punched in the face for her mobile during a terrifying mugging.
The Metropolitan Police launched Operation Echosteep in December 2024 after a box containing about 1,000 iPhones being shipped to Hong Kong was found at a warehouse near Heathrow.
Police are calling on the mobile phone industry to assist authorities by making it impossible for smugglers to use stolen phones.
They specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas, with street thieves being paid up to £300 per handset and stolen devices being sold for up to 5,000 dollars (£3,711) in China.
Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, previously said: “We’ve dismantled criminal networks at every level, from street-level thieves to international organised crime groups exporting tens of thousands of stolen devices each year.
“Londoners deserve to feel safe. We’ve shown how serious we are about tackling this issue, but we need more help from the industry.”
