Bar staff in Wimbledon will be showing off their chests for a month - to encourage customers to look after their mobile phones.

Workers at POD on The Broadway will be wearing T-shirts which read: "We’ll look after the service ... you look after your property." in response to numerous thefts of personal belongings from people enjoying nights out in the town.

Merton police officers and the PubWatch group launched the campaign on Thursday with a cracked down on mobile phone thieves and those who trade in stolen phones on the Met Police Big Wing Operation day.

Police in Wimbledon deployed special uniformed and plain clothes operations, high visibility patrols, visited licensed premises and carried out arrest warrants.

Inspector Jim Corbett, from the Wimbledon Safer Neighbourhoods team, said: "As part of a campaign to raise awareness and prevent further offences, T-shirts have been printed and have been distributed to bar staff and bottle collectors. We hope customers will be encouraged to look after their property.

"Crimes like theft have a huge impact on the people who are victims. By targeting those people responsible, plus the networks they use to sell on stolen property or trade for drugs we aim to make our streets a hostile place for them to operate."