If you're planning on visiting Lancaster over the coming months, make sure you leave your mobile phone at home. That's because Lancaster has been named as the UK's number one place to have your cellphone nicked followed by Wirral, Chester and Coventry.

In all, a cellphone is lifted every 12 seconds, according to a survey by Halifax Home Insurance, running up a whopping bill of around £390m a year.

Halifax's Vicky Emmott reckons that as mobile phones get lighter and more compact, they become "easier for opportunistic thieves to swipe".

"Phone users should avoid walking and talking and keep their mobiles out of sight whenever possible," she said.

Curiously, one of the places where you're least likely to have your mobile nicked is Ipswich in Suffolk. It seems thieves there prefer to break in to high security research labs and nick telecoms kit under test instead. ®

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