According to the latest official. government statistics, car crime is on the rise.

Specialist motor insurance loss adjuster, Claims Management & Adjusting (CMA), says new Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures are ‘shockingly unsurprising’.

Figures reveal an 8% annual increase in vehicle thefts.

Changing gear

ONS’s latest Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data was published on Thursday 25 January 2024.

Instances of “theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle” increased from 122,423 in the year October 2021 to September 2022, to 132,489 in the year October 2022 to September 2023. This represents an 8% year-on-year increase.

However, more concerning is that there has been a 17% increase on the pre-pandemic year to March 2020. It reveals a worrying upward trend in car crime figures.

Hi-Vis

Catherine Grant, Lead Analyst at the ONS, identified the rise in car thefts as one of the standout trends. There has been a mixed picture in the general crime figures across England and Wales, with some offences  actually on the decline.

For example, levels of fraud are down compared with the previous year, though this does not appear to include digital fraud.

“Police recorded crime is showing notable increases in some theft offences, including shoplifting,” comments Grant. “There has also been an increase in the theft of motor vehicles, which is shown in both survey and police recorded crime data.”

Philip Swift, a former detective, now Technical Director at CMA, said: “It gives me no pleasure to say it, but the only unexpected thing about these figures is that the increase isn’t higher. We have waved the white flag on vehicle theft and can only hope that these awful new government figures prompt some urgently needed action.”

A new old trend

Historically low levels of vehicle thefts over the last decade have perhaps left us a little complacent. As motorists we rely on the vehicles own defence mechanisms against  theft, such as alarms and immobilisers.

England and Wales hit a high of around 400,000 car thefts a year in the 1990s (during the so-called joyriding epidemic), down to only 70,000 in 2013/14.

“Car manufacturers did an amazing job improving security, largely designing out opportunist thefts,” states Swift. “Then, theft numbers began creeping back up, as organised criminals took advantage of high vehicle values and a seeming inattention to the crime. Today, post-pandemic, the picture is getting substantially worse year-on-year.

“In this context, our recent findings regarding the Vehicle Theft Taskforce (VTT) – obtained via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request – are even more damning. By 2019, car theft numbers were well over 100,000 a year again. Industry and consumer concern was mounting, so the Home Office established the VTT. It was attended by representatives from the Home Office and the Department for Transport, motor and insurance industry groups, and someone from the Office of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, which claimed to be ‘spearheading’ the initiative. A lot of the right people were there. They “noted the recent rises in vehicle theft”, provided a detailed “overview of the threat”, proposed an “action plan”, and agreed to meet every six months. Just one problem: that 2019 meeting was the only time the VTT ever met, and it appears nothing replaced it. What a missed opportunity!

Car alarms

Five years on, and the number of vehicle thefts has soared. At the same time, the successful recovery rate has plummeted to 23% or less (down from 80% in 2006). Much of this is down to organised crime gangs targeting specific vehicles, usually high-end motors that are exported.  “Crooks now consider car theft an easy win,” says Swift. “Highly lucrative with a low risk of capture, and lenient sentencing even if caught.”

The CMA is calling for a re-establishing of the VTT on an ongoing basis, and with proper funding.

Read the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) dataset here:

Further information on the VTT is available on the CMA website here.