Thursday, 26 September 2013

Guatemala adopts law to fight mobile phone theft

Friday 20 September 2013 | 09:34 CET | News
The Guatemalan Parliament has passed a law that punishes mobile phone theft with 6 up to 15 years in jail. Under the new law, people who steal mobile phones and resell them can also receive fines of up to USD 25,000, EFE reports. Customers found guilty of acquiring stolen mobile phones can be sentenced to 5 up to 10 years in prison. The Mobile Phone Law mainly aims to reduce the number of violent phone thefts.
The new law also requires Guatemala operators to register all mobile lines, data that will be used by the Superintendence of Telecommunications to set up a mobile user database, as well as of handset and accessories resellers. Operators have three months to complete the required mobile phone registry.
According to a recent report from the Superintendence of Telecommunications, a mobile phone theft is recorded every four minutes in Guatemala, most often in violent assaults. Over 142,745 mobile phones have been reported as stolen in Guatemala in 2012, which represents an increases of nearly 40 percent from 101,664 handsets stolen in 2011.

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