To – Member of Parliament (re 04/07/2025 letter)
Subject: Urgent Concerns: Repatriation of Stolen Vehicles and Systemic Failures
Thank you for your recent correspondence.
I would be grateful if you could provide details of the correspondence with the Minister of State for Policing and Crime Prevention regarding the issue of stolen vehicles located abroad. Specifically, I would appreciate a copy of the original submission and any briefings or representations made.
The issue referenced above – repatriation of stolen UK-registered vehicles – is critical and notably absent from current discourse, despite being briefly touched upon in relation to exports in May 2025. The lack of meaningful attention to cross-border vehicle theft is troubling, particularly when departments such as ACRO, DfT, DVLA, the Home Office, MoJ, Metropolitan Police, NCA, and NPCC are all unable to assist in meaningful vehicle repatriation efforts.
The recent Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) paper, “Organised Vehicle Theft in the UK: Trends and Challenges”, also makes superficial reference to potential international collaboration, but fails to address core operational challenges or offer viable solutions. As I have commented publicly, the UK’s greatest barrier appears to be domestic inertia and bureaucratic disconnect:
Despite high levels of vehicle theft, the government’s response has lacked both urgency and strategy. Critical findings from the 2019 Vehicle Crime Taskforce have been left to stagnate, and professional criminals have enjoyed a multi-year window of inattention:
https://carcrime.uk/unintended-criminal-consequences/
https://carcrime.uk/vehicle-taking-picking-the-low-hanging-fruit/
While initiatives like the NVCRP are welcome, they must not repeat the fate of their predecessors. I hope the government commits to consistent funding and active collaboration with stakeholders beyond government – particularly insurers and their adjusters/agents who have valuable insight and capability.
The problem cannot be dismissed as a matter of “keyless entry” about which no meaningful records are maintained and conflicting statements issued. It is understood professional thieves exploit systemic weaknesses, including loopholes at main dealers for key generation. Meanwhile, manufacturers – though unfairly scapegoated -bear some responsibility for refusing post-loss support, often referring claimants back to overburdened constabularies.
Furthermore, recent legislative proposals (Crime and Policing Bill) appear to misunderstand the nature of theft devices and stop short of banning them, instead increasing sentences for the available “going equipped” offence. The legislation appears to miss the mark: https://carcrime.uk/250225-crime-and-policing-bill-fact-sheets/
Even the scale of theft remains unclear. We lack accurate, centralised data on methods of theft, recovery rates, and repatriations. The £250,000 allocation to address vehicle crime is inadequate, particularly when JLR alone has reportedly invested four times that sum.
The public is losing faith in policing priorities. Victims increasingly perceive that crime numbers are issued for insurance claims but without any realistic expectation of vehicle recovery. Insurers, not police, return individuals to their pre-loss position – yet, obtaining a crime report is often the most significant delay in settling a claim.
As someone with 30+ years of experience reviewing police reports and working with major insurers, I find the lack of operational integration between police and insurers outdated and counterproductive. If we are serious about prevention and detection, we must abandon the “us vs. them” mindset and embrace true collaboration at all levels.
If one were to ask a police constabulary, it is unlikely they could identify any. Allegations of false reporting appear invisible in police data — there are no apparent incidents of time-wasting, fraudulent reports, or allegations being ‘no-crimed’ due to misrepresentation. It would seem the offence has been eradicated. But this is simply not the case.
Empirical figures on the issue are scarce. However, the Vehicle Crime Reduction Action Team (VCRAT) estimated in 1999 that approximately 9% of vehicle theft allegations were false — nearly 1 in 10. Later, Kent Police identified that 30% of such allegations were “tainted by fraud.” These are not marginal figures.
Today, with an overreliance on telephone crime reporting, minimal investigative scrutiny, and a frequent lack of cooperation from connected parties, there is little reason to believe the incidence of false reporting has declined — and yet, it is not acknowledged.
The absence of any meaningful data on misreported vehicle thefts points to a troubling lack of institutional curiosity or will to address this issue. False reports distort the national picture, undermine police legitimacy, waste limited resources, and obstruct genuine investigations.
One might recall Peel’s foundational policing principle:
- “The primary object of an efficient police is the prevention of crime: the next that of detection and punishment of offenders if crime is committed. To these ends all the efforts of police must be directed. The protection of life and property, the preservation of public tranquillity, and the absence of crime, will alone prove whether those efforts have been successful and whether the objects for which the police were appointed have been attained.” https://carcrime.uk/policing/
Does this principle not extend to crime committed against the insurance industry? When false reporting is overlooked, and claims are paid based on unchallenged crime numbers, both public and private sectors suffer.
Finally, I would welcome an update on what guidance, if any, the Home Office has provided to law enforcement or port authorities regarding repatriation efforts, data-sharing across borders, or collaboration with the insurance sector. I also urge the Home Office to lead on a strategy that recognises vehicle theft not as a low-priority issue, but as an increasingly organised, transnational criminal activity with wide-ranging economic and social harms (Interpol – Stolen Vehicle Crime)
Yours sincerely,
P. Swift