Top 10 UK vehicle theft hotspots revealed

Insurance investigator concerned about police inaction on car crime

Almost 100,000 vehicles were stolen in Britain last year, data released to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has revealed. According to the DVLA, constabularies across the UK recorded 98,730 vehicle thefts in 2022. That means a vehicle is stolen somewhere in the UK about every five minutes, at a national average rate of 146.63 per 100,000 population.

The FoI request was made by Philip Swift, a former detective and now managing director of insurance investigators Claims Management & Adjusting (CMA). “The figures we obtained from the DVLA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provide intriguing insights into the scale and pattern of the UK’s vehicle crime problem,” said Swift.

“The first thing to say is that the headline number is high. While not back to the ‘joyriding’ epidemic of the 1990s, a 100,000 vehicles taken in a single year is a lot. When you consider that a high percentage of these will be expensive cars targeted by organised criminal gangs – vehicles that will very likely never be seen again – the pound note cost to insurers runs to billions, bringing pressure to increase premiums.

“The second thing to say is this isn’t just a numbers game. While it’s no coincidence that the top four areas include some of the UK’s largest cities –London, Birmingham in the West Midlands, Manchester and Leeds in West Yorkshire – there are other factors at play.

“For instance, Strathclyde, which covers Glasgow, and Merseyside, which covers Liverpool, see proportionally very low levels of car crime. Conversely, some relatively low population areas suffer terribly. Why did Essex report the fifth highest number of vehicle thefts – six times as many as

Merseyside last year? My personal view is that some constabularies appear to take car crime more seriously than others – they have better strategies and put in more effort.

“A communication we received recently from Essex Police sheds unfortunate light on the situation. During our dayto-day insurance claims handling, we frequently ask police services for crime reports. We track the delivery times and Essex take by far the longest –sometimes more than a year. So, not only do Essex residents live with a high risk of having their cars nicked, they also face substantial delays in having their claims considered should it happen. What a double whammy!

“Essex Police e-mailed us blaming the hold-ups on ‘a back log of applications due to an unprecedented workload in other priority legislative areas’. They are literally saying they’ve got better things to do than assist the victims of vehicle crime. I was appalled and have written to the chief constable about it.”