DVLA Records
It may be reasonable to assume that the DVLA would hold the most comprehensive records relating to vehicle ‘taking’ – that vehicles reported stolen to the police would see their Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM) passed to the DVLA who would record the ‘stolen’ status and therefore have the most accurate information. But no …
The DVLA does not receive every stolen record, so its information will always understate the actual position. This is explained in more detail here.
Police / Home Office
Do the HOME OFFICE codes/recording provide an accurate picture of UK vehicle theft?
A number of offence codes are associated ‘taking’ and ‘theft’ of a vehicle. However, ‘taking’ and ‘theft’ are not, in themselves, differentiated.
Home Office crime codes:
- 48 – vehicle reported ‘stolen’
- 53 – vehicle taken by fraud
- 28 – vehicles taken by burglary
- 34 – vehicle taken by robbery*.
*Albeit my understanding that technically it is not possible to ‘rob’ a motor vehicle. However, I assume that its keys and contents would fall to such an offence and may give rise to categorization of robbery associated with these elements.
Note
- If multiple offences occur within one occurrence, the most serious offence is used to record the crime.
- Offence codes 28 and 34, do not relate solely to vehicle crime. A stolen vehicle may have been used in the commission of the offence, rather than being stolen as a result of the offence.
- The count of vehicles for offence code 28 can be higher than the occurrences because more than one vehicle can be stolen in each occurrence.
- The count of vehicles for offence code 48 can be lower than the count of occurrences because not all occurrences contain details of the recorded vehicle with the vehicle fields.
(source)
More about Police ‘Taken’ Data – The Missing or Confusing Records.
Fraud
Concerning offence code ’53’, it does not appear these offences fall to ‘taking/theft’.
When asked for the number of vehicles taken by fraud reported to a constabulary (Home Office code 53), no information was held. It was explained,:
Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime.
In the vast majority of cases, reports of fraud are completed via the Action Fraud website or Action Fraud call centre.
All cases of fraud, whether reported directly by the victim or referred by the Police, are recorded centrally via Action Fraud and analysed within the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) hosted by the City of London Police as the lead force.
More about Fraud ‘Taken’ Records – How & Where Recorded?