Chasing down the criminals who couldn’t resist a Cossie
Having read your recent article on the Ford Sierra and Escort Cosworths (C&SC, December), I would like to highlight just how popular they were… with car thieves!
In 1992-’93, I was seconded to Strathclyde Police Stolen Vehicle Section in Glasgow. The section was housed in a former corporation bus garage, and was full of every kind of vehicle waiting to be identified to find its rightful owner. Back then, all Fords – from Fiestas to Transits – were fair game, but the Sierra Cosworth was the Holy Grail and Strathclyde alone had around five or six outstanding stolen ones on file at any time. When you add this figure to the rest of the UK, they must have been one of the most stolen cars in proportion to the number built.
They were reasonably easy to steal, there was a good supply of new and secondhand parts, and there were plenty of write-offs around to take the identity from. There was always a gullible enthusiast delighted to get his hands on a bargain, and who had usually bought it from a guy called ‘John’ in a supermarket car park. The cars were generally stolen to order to match the year and colour of a write-off, and were then ‘rung’ using the crashed car’s numbers.
The level of ringing went from basic – obliterating the stamped VIN and engine numbers, removing the VIN plate and grinding off any etched window numbers, then putting on the numberplates of the written-off vehicle – to sophisticated: cutting out the floorpan with the stamped VIN and fitting a new one; stamping in the new VIN; buffing off the engine number and stamping the new one; replacing the VIN plates with those from the write-off; and replacing any glass that had been etched with new.
Many were just presented to the DVLA as having been built from spare parts and were issued with ‘Q’ plates.
We were sent out to search a barn in rural Lanarkshire one afternoon, and inside we found the remains of at least four Sierra and Sapphire Cosworths, complete interiors, doors without glass, engine and suspension parts, plus one complete car that had clearly been well rung. I was given the job of driving it the 30-or-so miles back to Glasgow, while the other guys were left to pile all of the suspect components into vans. I was really impressed by the power and handling – I was even buzzed on the M74 by a Toyota Supra driver looking for a challenge, but I never took him on… well, I had my career to think about!
The Sapphire was examined by an experienced detective. All the glass had been changed (the date stamp was later than the car’s manufacture), it had a new floorpan and the factory engine number had been replaced. All efforts to identify it drew a blank until, after a few weeks, the detective sergeant’s eye was drawn to the taillamp and he noticed that the original registration had been etched into the lens! The car was quickly identified as the example that had been stolen in Aberdeen a few months earlier.
By time the Escort Cosworth came along, transponder keys and Trackers were required by most insurance companies before they would cover one. They were still stolen, but not in the same number as the Sierras.
A quick scan of the internet reveals that they are still being stolen, and I often wonder just how many ringers are still out there. Willie Bennie
Glenmavis, Airdrie