Five held over £4.2m mobile theft

Five men have been arrested in connection with the theft of mobile phones worth £4.2million after a £200,000 reward was offered for information leading to the recovery of the handsets.

Police recovered 9,649 mobiles worth £1.76 million from an address in west London and from a van parked nearby.

The raid came after thieves escaped with 23,000 top-of-the-range, silver-coloured Samsung A300 mobile flip-phones from a warehouse in Hayes, west London, on Sunday. A Met spokesman said all five men were arrested at the premises where, according to a police source, "there were phones all over the place". Officers worked into the early hours of today matching the serial numbers of the recovered phones with those stolen.

Detective Inspector Morgan O'Grady, who is leading the inquiry, said: "A lot of information came in after the appeal went out. I think the £200,000 reward helped loosen a few tongues. The rest of the phones are going to be very difficult to shift now. We are well on our way and pleased with today's work. We are very appreciative of the media's support."

Samsung offered a reward of up to £200,000 for information leading to the capture of the thieves who carried out the raid, believed to be one of the biggest of its type in Britain.

Raiders used a key to get into the warehouse and stole a security camera before making off with the phones.