WHAT HAPPENS TO STOLEN CARS?

As soon as a car has been stolen, particularly if it’s a high-end model which might have a tracking device fitted, it will be parked for a couple of days in a spot where it blends with the surroundings.

Assuming no one finds it, one of four eventualities will ensue. It might be used in a crime; it could be stripped for parts; it may be sent abroad; or it could get a new identity, so it doesn’t flag up as stolen, and then be sold.

Whatever the outcome, it’s likely to have been stolen to order. “The most popular use of performance cars was in commercial burglaries, especially making off at speed from cash machine burglaries,” the University of Huddersfield’s Preventing Vehicle Crime report found.

Stolen cars are sent abroad in shipping containers, usually to either Africa, the Middle East or Eastern Europe. Working with Interpol, AX-UK tracked a Range Rover to Kampala in Uganda, where it found £1 million worth of stolen cars from Britain.

The NPCC told us: “Disposal routes for stolen vehicles are also a key focus and we work closely with the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NAVCIS) to target ports which we know are a key route for moving stolen vehicles, as well as with police forces and colleagues in the NPCC metal theft portfolio to tackle so-called ‘chop shops’.”

Chop shops are where stolen cars are stripped for their parts. Tracker’s Clive Wain said: “In 2020 during the pandemic, the police we work with uncovered two chop shops. Last year there were 55. And that’s only a small snapshot of what’s happening nationally.

“There was one case where vehicles were shipped from the UK to eastern Europe, stripped, and their parts were sold back to unsuspecting UK buyers.” Parts such as doors, bumpers, seats and expensive electronic components are virtually untraceable.

Neil Thomas doesn’t believe Brexit has affected car crime. “In my experience, car crime is borderless. Leaving the EU has had no impact.”

‘Stolen cars are sent abroad in shipping containers, usually to Africa, the Middle East or Eastern Europe’