How could the authorities have got the UK’s vehicle theft statistics so wrong? asks the regular commentator on vehicle crime, retired cop Ken German.
The Home Office has confirmed there were 101,198 reported vehicle thefts in 2021, more than twice the figure of 48,400 that the West Midlands Police advised Grant Shapps earlier this year.
The often quoted figure of 48,400 seen in the national and motoring press in February 2020 seemed rather low and quite unrealistic. Indeed data received by Kent-based Claims Management & Adjusting Company (CMA) in answer to a Freedom of Information Act request shows a new Home Office figure of 101,198 vehicle thefts in England and Wales reported last year alone. That’s more than double that had been previously reported. The cost to insurers is now, CMA suggest is a staggering £1.5 billion pounds a year and rising when you factor in the increased value of vehicles, plummeting recovery rates and the condition of stolen vehicles when found.
Year Vehicle thefts Percentage recovered Estimated average vehicle value Estimated total cost2006 180,000 80pc £10k £360m2021 100,000 28pc £20k £1.44bn
CMA managing director Philip Swift said: “The fact that 72pc of stolen vehicles are never recovered is a staggering failure. Having, to an extent, designed out ‘joy riding’, we appear to be left with organised criminals benefitting from the lack of attention now given to vehicle crime. Possibly this is why some constabularies no longer record approximate vehicle values, which is easy enough to do.”
In March, I read an article about car crime rocketing in the West Midlands, and how the local Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) had written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to demand action. That letter sent on the March 23 by email to the Right Hon Grant Shapps by Simon Foster the could vehicle theft stats wrong
