Vehicle crime
Stealing cars and other vehicles offers large profits at relatively low risk. Some organised criminals are involved in organised vehicle crime principally to profit from reselling stolen vehicles (cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles and plant) and parts. Some of the profits fund other crime. Stolen vehicles are also used to commit other crimes, for example armed robberies and cash machine raids.
Recent years have seen a significant decrease in the total number of vehicles stolen in the UK, mostly due to improved anti-theft technology. However, during the same period the proportion of vehicles which are not recovered by law enforcement has increased from 40% to 51%. This indicates that organised crime groups have increased their market share.
The varying threats of vehicle crime
One consequence of improved anti-theft technology in new cars has been a rise in thefts of keys, primarily by house burglary (including the use of violence if confronted) and break-ins at commercial premises.
Vehicles are also obtained through fraudulent means. These include obtaining vehicles on finance agreements and then not making payments, hiring cars with the intention of stealing them, and carjacking.
Some vehicles stolen in the UK are re-introduced into the UK market using false or forged vehicle identities. However, large numbers are also shipped overseas.
In addition, vehicles stolen by organised criminals often have their identities changed through “ringing” and “cloning”.
Vehicle ringing
The identities of cars and other vehicles broken up for parts are used to “ring” (provide an apparently legitimate identity for) stolen vehicles. Although businesses involved in dismantling vehicles or trading in insurance write-offs are required to register with local authorities, only a small proportion are believed to be registered, leaving a vast number unregulated and therefore open to criminal exploitation.
Car cloning
Cloning is the vehicle equivalent of identity theft. It’s estimated there may be up to 10,000 cloned cars and other vehicles in the UK. The most common method of cloning is to replace a car’s number plates with ones stolen from a similar vehicle. In addition, some criminals use replica registration plates sold via the Internet.
Find out more about vehicle crime now
For further information, have a look at the vehicle crime section of the UK Threat Assessment (765.62 kb PDF)
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