This is the shocking moment a young woman had her phone stolen by a pickpocket - from right under her nose.

Isolde Stephens, 21, was having dinner with her cousin at Xian Biang Biang Noodles in Covent Garden, London when the incident happened.

The pair were sitting outside when a woman wearing a hat and mask over her face approached them.

She began asking for food and as she pointed at a plate, she covered Isolde's phone with a begging sign and covertly stole her phone.

Isolde, who was visiting from Amsterdam, Netherlands, said: "We'd only been there for about half an hour before it happened."

"She just came up to us and was asking for food while pointing to some food I'd ordered."

"Then she put the paper over the phone and took the phone away under the paper."

"She walked away pretty slowly and I didn't think anything else of it until ten minutes later when I realised my phone was gone."

"I searched my bags and my pockets and then I remembered her coming over."

Isolde informed the staff at the restaurant, who checked the CCTV and showed her what had happened.

Isolde said: "The workers brought out the CCTV to show me straight away."

"They said they deal with the woman often and she operates in the area a lot."

"Once I saw what had happened, I tried running up and down the street to find the woman, but she was no where to be seen."

Isolde was able to track her phone using Find My iPhone and reported the incident to the police.

She said: "We ended up tracking the phone for a while because we could see it moving on Find My iPhone."

"The phone stayed overnight at an address in Barking and then was gone far out of London the next morning."

"The police took everything down that I was saying but they didn't seem very hopeful."

"The woman must be a professional because she hid herself on the CCTV so she can't be identified."

"The police said they'd visit the residence in Barking the day of the theft but I guess they didn't based off the fact it stayed there the night and travelled away the next morning."