This is the moment police officers caught a brazen phone thief in Soho, central London.

Plain clothes officers PC Josh Lowther and PC Stephen Rogers where on patrol on Friday July 5 when they caught snatcher Kadi Nasser in the act.

Footage shows Nasser, dressed in white, crossing a busy street before grabbing a phone from the back pocket of an unsuspecting victim.

The thief was spotted by the two officers who retrieved the stolen mobile and returned it to its owner.

Nasser, 25, pleaded guilty to theft at Westminster Magistrates Court, where he was sentenced to 30 weeks in prison on July 8.

Detective Superintendent Sargent Hussain,  who is in charge of phone robbery at the Metropolitan Police, said: 'Robbery and theft are invasive and often violent crimes. I want to therefore applaud the quick-thinking actions of these two officers for returning the victim's phone, putting a street thief behind bars, and helping to make London safer.

'Met officers are targeting resources to hotspot areas, such as Westminster and Croydon, with increased patrols and plain clothes officers. These deter criminals and make officers more visibly available to members of the community.

'We encourage people to report as soon as they can whenever they have been a victim of robbery or theft, so officers can attend the scene and investigate swiftly.'

It comes as Met Police officers have used innovative tactics to halve robberies in some areas of the capital, including sting operations involving plain clothes officers posing as victims wearing luxury items to catch thieves in the act.

One operation in January showed back-up officers pounce on hooded thugs as they stole watches from their undercover colleagues.

A total of 293 arrests were made across London for personal robbery in the four weeks up to June 30, Met Police confirmed.

The force said it had recorded a 23.8% drop in robbery cases in central London since April.

Officers are also using intelligence to identify repeat offenders. Criminals sentenced to over three months in jail given tags that can be used by officers to identify them if they reoffend.

The data is also used to locate stolen phones, with over 750 devices recovered this year so far.

Met Police said it was also working with tech companies to prevent phones being re-registered with iCloud by a second person.