A thief was arrested seconds after stealing a mobile phone in central London.

Video footage from a Metropolitan Police surveillance camera shows a man dressed in white crossing a street and then stealing a phone from the back pocket of an “unsuspecting victim”.

Plainclothes police officers PC Josh Lowther and PC Stephen Rogers, who were on patrol in Soho on July 5, are then seen in action.

Kaidi Nasser, 25, pleaded guilty to theft at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 8 July and was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison.

On the same day, he was also convicted of a shoplifting incident in January, resulting in a total sentence of 30 weeks.

Det Supt Saj Hussain, the Met’s phone robbery officer, said: “Robbery and theft are serious and often violent crimes.

“I would therefore like to commend the quick actions of these two officers who have returned the phone to the victim, put a street thief behind bars and helped to make London safer.”

He said police were targeting areas where phone thefts were common.

“We encourage people to report as soon as possible if they are the victim of a robbery or theft so that officers can arrive quickly and investigate the incident,” he added.