A PHONE thief was snared by police thanks to the ‘find my phone’ application downloaded by the phone’s owner.

Police in Essex are today urging other smart phone owners to activate the application to help officers track their phones if stolen.

Officers in Halstead located the stolen iPhone and returned it to its owner after the ‘find my phone’ app provided an accurate GPS location of the mobile.

The woman’s phone was stolen from a pub in Earls Colne on Sunday, February 20.

As a result of the application officers were able to log on to the victim’s account and a map guided them to where the phone was located.

Officers then searched an address in Earls Colne, discovering the phone in the garden of the property.

A 52-year-old man from Earls Colne was arrested on suspicion of theft.

He admitted stealing the phone and was given a police caution.

Halstead neighbourhood policing Sgt Jason Snow said: “The ‘find my phone’ application could help police trace your phone if it is stolen but it relies on the owner creating a simple account to activate it beforehand.

“We received a second report of an iPhone being stolen a few days after this case but because the victim hadn’t activated the system we weren’t able to trace the phone so quickly. We would appeal to owners of smart phones and other devices like the iPad to activate the application as soon as they can.”