hi,could anyone tell me how i can find out if a phone has been blocked for free?thanks

I know it's not free but £1.99 Check Mend I don't think there are any free ones for the uk.

Common symptoms of blocked stolen or lost mobile phones are:

T-Mobile & Virgin Mobile

When a SIM is inserted in the phone it will seem as though the mobile is working and will show that you have reception on the network.
However if you try to dial out although it will seem that the call is going through, you will hear a number unrecognized tone.
If you were to dial the number of the SIM card you entered, the mobile would not ring when called.

Vodafone

The phone will again show reception but when an outbound call is made it will repeatedly fail. You will only be able to send text messages.
Note: Sometimes a phone will work on the Vodafone network for calls going out but the SIM will be barred after a while.
If you check it on other networks you can find out if the phone is barred as it will display the symptoms described for the other networks.

O2 & Orange

On O2 and Orange the SIM will say simcard registration failure, will have no reception and no network operator logo will appear.

you could try IMEI.info, you will have to register (its free) then enter imei number

thanks willo and alann,willo ive had a blackberry Q5 sent to me on contract but i put the sim in the wrong way which has broken the sim reader,when i phoned virgin to tell them they just sent me another phone but havent asked for the other back but i cant tell if its been locked and dont want to spend £35 on a new sim reader to find out it is locked!i can get wifi on it and it says i can dial emergency services on it!any advice would be apprieciated thanks.

Normally contract phones are not locked, every contract phone I have had has never been locked, I don't know about Blackberry's tho.

It's not your phone...