Land Rovers most likely to be stolen as car thefts soar

Insurance companies warn hi-tech security systems no match for thieves targeting the latest luxury models

LAND ROVERS are the car most likely to be stolen in the UK, figures show, as the number of vehicle thefts rose by a quarter in the past year.

Data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency show that in the 12 months to March, Land Rover was the most stolen car brand in the UK, with one in every 100 of them being taken.

The data, obtained through Freedom of Information requests by Confused.com, found that Land Rovers were three-times more likely to be stolen than a Mercedes-benz, the second most sought-after brand by thieves.

Of the 896,948 licensed Land Rovers in the country, 8,284 had been recorded as stolen. Land Rovers also accounted for six of the top 10 most stolen car models overall, with the Range Rover Velar R-dynamic the most sought out by criminals, with two in every 100 of the model ending up stolen. Mercedesbenz owners have the second most stolen car brand on the list, with 323 cars per 100,000 vehicles taken, followed by Ford and BMW.

The data also revealed that black cars are most likely to disappear from roads. A total of 18,000 black cars were stolen last year. The West Midlands experienced the most car thefts across the UK, with 251 out of every 100,000 cars getting taken, while Dyfed-powys in Wales had the lowest rate of thefts, with just 22 per 100,000 vehicles were stolen.

It comes as new analysis from AA Insurance showed that the number of cars stolen last year increased by 25 per cent. The rate of thefts has soared over the past year, with analysis of crime data by AA Insurance showing that 130,389 cars had been stolen in 2022, up from 104,435 in 2021. The insurance provider warned that thieves were becoming more sophisticated in the way they steal cars through the use of hi-tech methods to overcome vehicle security systems.

These include key cloning or relay theft, which sees them use transmitters to intercept the unique signal from the cars and redirect it towards another transmitter that is aimed towards the car. So sophisticated have the transmitters become that they can clone a key’s signal from outside a house.

The rise in thefts was matched by an increase in the number of people that had seen possessions stolen from their cars, with 212,900 items stolen last year, compared with 193,647 stolen in 2021.

Gus Park, of AA Insurance Services, said the figures were in danger of “spiralling out of control”. AA Insurance is advising drivers to not leave valuables in cars and use deterrents such as a steering wheel lock, as these cannot be overcome by the technology being used by thieves. Mr Park said: “Just making it a bit harder for the thieves can make it less likely that they’ll go for your car.”