More than 4,000 phones handed by the government to criminals on probation were either "lost" or "stolen", new figures have revealed.
Thousands of basic mobile phones were handed out during the pandemic to help keep track of those being supervised by the probation service, including prisoners temporarily released on licence to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
So-called “dumb phones” can cost between £25 and £50 each - which would put the cost of lost and stolen phones at more than £100,000.
