£342m of mobile phones flushed away

Britons lose an amazing 885,000 mobile phone handsets each year - by accidentally dropping them into the toilet and flushing them away, according to new research.

SimplySwitch.com - the price comparison and switching service - said the flushed handsets were worth about £342 million.

Common causes of losing mobile handsets were falling out of pockets and being knocked into the toilet when being placed on things like the toilet roll holder.

The research revealed 4.5million handsets were lost or damaged every year. - with common catastrophes including leaving mobiles in the pub (810,000 handsets), in a taxi (315,000) or on a bus (225,000).

More bizarrely, family pet dogs chewed their way through 58,500 handsets last year - and another 116,000 went through a spin cycle with the dirty laundry.

The research found that over a quarter of mobile owners had lost or damaged a handset - with men more prone to carelessness than women.

Figures showed 28% of men admitted to breaking or losing their phone compared to 26% of women.

But owners do become more careful with age, the research revealed.

Although 40% of under-34's admitted to losing or damaging their handset, this dropped to 16% among the over-55s.

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