Community worker Elliot Hughes, who helps local students access the garden and get into nature, said it was important to teach young people about the wider risks of phone theft across the capital.
“The best we can do is give awareness” he said. “There’s young people now, walking around central London on their phones, in the middle of the street, which are essentially £1,000 computers.
“So [I am] just highlighting to them maybe the things they shouldn’t be doing.”
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said local officers had stepped up patrols in the area to identify potential phone snatching offenders.
“By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital and have reduced theft by 16% since April.
“We’re also dismantling organised crime groups suspected of large-scale phone theft.”
The force called on phone companies including Apple and Samsung for security improvements that would make stolen phones harder to sell.
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