Interesting & Reference

07/2025 – Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is the victim of an uninsured or hit-and-run driver- MIB – read more here

• Historical insight also shows that uninsured drivers are more likely to speed, more likely to have a defective vehicle, more likely to be a convicted drink-driver, and more likely to be involved in a fatal collision. Getting those who are knowingly driving uninsured off our roads doesn’t just get rid of uninsured driving, it makes roads safer for everyone

2025 – Crime and Policing Bill – Bill passage (parliament)

05/2025 – Car thieves targeting parking sensors and airbags as the black market for stolen car parts thrives – parking sensor theft quadrupled in 2024. Honest John

05/2025 – ‘Happier Cars’ (Harlow, Essex) – and allegations of a scam that it not new; taking cars to sell on behalf of consumers in exchange for a commission, but customers never receive money. CarDealerMagazine.

• Theft, Fraud or Civil Dispute? Read more here.

In the 12 months to January 2025, we [Essex Police] recorded a 5% decrease in the number of incidents of theft of a motor vehicle, solving 78 more cases than we did the previous year. Essex Police.

02/05/2025 – £1.4 million criminal plot – 82 cars stolen over six months then dismantled at “chop shops” across Merseyside. Taken using automatic key programmers, devices used legitimately by locksmiths which had “fallen into the hands of the defendants”. Liverpool Echo

23/04/2025 – WMP&CC ‘driving down car thefts’ – 35 per cent rise in cars being stolen between 2021 (11,990) and 2023 (16,232) but since Operation Vantor launched last year, ‘car crime’* in the region has reduced by more than 10 per cent

*theft from and of vehicles?

08/04/2025 – Six cars confirmed as stolen were located in containers at ports. The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), a national policing unit that works with police forces and industry to disrupt criminality involving serious and organised vehicle theft crime, has taken over their recovery – read more here.

02/2025 – ‘Car signal jammers behind a surge in vehicle thefts to be outlawed‘ (Telegraph & BBC) More interesting statistics, the source of which is unknown:
6 in 10 theft by jamming’
132,412 car thefts in 2024
However, in early 2024 the MPS could not disclose how many car thefts occurred in Greater London using keyless technology i.e. ‘relay theft’ as the information was ‘not in a readily retrievable format‘. Maybe things have changed – a response to a request is awaited.

02/2025 – Car thieves offered to sell motors back to victims. They targeted luxury cars and motorbikes with a series of burglaries and car-jackings, and were charged with a total of 47 separate offences, police said. (BBC):

• Note: not ‘security bypass’ or ‘keyless’ taking

02/2025 – Amazon banned car number plates as illegal supplies were found. ‘It is illegal for UK companies to supply number plates without physically seeing documents such as a driving licence or V5 document.’ Reference to ‘car cloning’. (BBC)

• From 2021 to 2023, about 90,000 penalty charge notices were written off due to number plate cloning.

• Last year the BBC revealed a 64% increase over three years in the number of fines cancelled due to car cloning incidents in London – see 08/2024 link below.

02/2025 – WhatCar’s ‘UK Most Stolen Cars of 2024‘ has been published, but how accurate is the information?

01/2025 – Across England and Wales an average of 78.5% of car thefts went unsolved in the last financial year. 10% of cars stolen in London are recovered, with less than 1% of cases resulting in someone being charged (Daily Mail).

01/2025 – New AI cameras will take ‘enforcement to the next level’ with drivers at risk. Read more here.

• If the cameras are so sophisticated, why are they seemingly unable to assist with identifying the use of duplicate VRMs on our roads?

‘ghost plate’ speed camera loophole & concerns – 05/2025 Mirror