Can London convince the world it's a safe place to go shopping?

Daylight robbery is a term that could have been coined for London's glitziest West End shopping streets, where crime spikes in the afternoon not late at night.

Stung by the incessant posts on social media highlighting thefts and raids, city bosses are fighting back against what they see as wild distortions over the safety of London's streets.

Dee Corsi, the chief executive of the New West End Company, an umbrella body for 600 businesses operating in the shopping areas around Oxford Street, told The National the city cannot afford to let crime harm its image. Ms Corsi said it was time for London to fight back against its reputation for crime.

She said London is not the only city hit by mobile phone thefts, a point backed up by the Met Police which says Madrid has more phone thefts per resident.

“The stats speak for themselves. We are a safe city,” Ms Corsi said. “The violent crime is reducing, so is the phone theft.

“For me this is really about changing the perception. So we've got to be better, telling the good news stories and the successes that we have.

“We invest huge sums to give the best experience to visitors, whether they be domestic or international visitors, or indeed, residents and others,” she said. “So it's really, really important that we can't let our reputation get tarnished.”

The area around Oxford Street falls within the borough of Westminster,