TERROR OF TEEN CARJACK GANGS
TEENAGE carjacking gangs are bringing terror to our streets.
Rising numbers of drivers are being held up at gun and knife point, new figures have revealed.
Others wake up to find their cars have been stolen by youths who have turned from scooter crime to car crime.
Juvenile gangs are not just joyriding – they sell stolen vehicles to crime bosses or gut them for valuable parts.
Investigators found there was a 52% increase in the number of under-18s involved in car crime proceedings in court from 2012 to 2016.
In England and Wales there were 1,004 juvenile convictions – 14% of the total across all age groups for the period.
London is the teenage car gang capital with 304 convictions from 2012 to 2016 – 30% of the total number of under-18s convicted in England and Wales.
But investigators fear it is the tip of the iceberg with hundreds of teenage tearaways never getting caught in the act.
However, some are. Last year a sixstrong teenage gang was jailed after a car theft rampage which saw victims threatened with guns. Judge Patrick Thomas sitting at Birmingham Crown Court passed sentences of five and three years on two 15-year-olds and a two-year jail term on a 16-year-old.
Two other defendants, a
17-year-old and a 16-yearold, were handed eightmonth sentences and a
15-year-old received six months.
All six pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob.
They stole a VW Polo at knifepoint and bragged on social media how they planned to “suck a whip” – street slang for “rob a car”.
Steve Barrett, the head of car insurance at Churchill who compiled the figures, said: “It is a concern that there has been such a sharp increase in trials for juvenile car thieves over the past five years.
“If the penalties for car theft were more of a deterrent, coupled with improvements to offender rehabilitation, this could hopefully lessen the chances of juveniles re-offending, bringing overall crime figures down over time too.”