UK: ONLY ONE IN TWENTY END IN CHARGES OR SUMMONSES DESPITE VEHICLE CRIMES RISE

Sat 30 December 2023:

Only one in 20 vehicle crimes end in a charge or summons despite soaring numbers of offences, figures suggested.

Charge rates for car thefts, stealing from a vehicle and interference with a vehicle dropped from almost eight percent in 2019 to just 5.08 percent last year, The Daily Mail reported.

This is despite an 11 percent increase in vehicle-related crimes in a year, from 92,529 in 2021 to 103,004 last year, research from car security firm Nextbase found.

Almost 70 percent of vehicle thefts, thefts from a vehicle or vandalism offences were dropped by police over a lack of evidence during this time.

There were 396,000 car-related crimes between 2019 and 2022, with just 6.7 percent resulting in a charge or summons, the Freedom of Information responses show.

In London alone there were almost 85,000 vehicle crimes, with just 4,470 charges brought. A bill in the King’s Speech will outlaw keyless car hacking equipment to curb a 25 percent rise in vehicle thefts.

Keyless repeaters and signal jammers are thought to be behind the majority of the vehicle thefts in 2022.

Thieves can buy the devices for £2,500 online and use them to intercept the signal from a keyless fob and transmit it to another gadget which unlocks the car.

Even expensive luxury cars can be easy pickings for thieves using the technology, as Hollywood star Tom Cruise discovered when his £100,000 BMW X7 sports car was stolen in Birmingham.

The car was parked outside a city centre hotel while the 61-year-old was in the UK shooting Mission: Impossible 7, and was later recovered.

A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said, “This is not a low-level offence – it is a crime which causes distress and which we take very seriously.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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