| Car
thieves are targeting 1970s & 80s cars Car crime was rampant in the UK in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and a recent Home Office report shows it has not gone away. Vehicle theft offenders are even more capable and organised today than they were then. As classic car values rise they become more attractive to car thieves, particularly popular mainstream classic cars. Car thefts in 2014 In 2014 in England and Wales, there were 75,000 recorded vehicle thefts and 246,000 recorded thefts from vehicles. This represents a fall of more than 75 per cent in total vehicle crime since the mid 1990s. Despite this large fall in offences, rates at which offenders are charged for vehicle offences remain low. In 2014/15, 86 per cent of the outcomes assigned to vehicle thefts were: "Investigation complete - no suspect identified" and only five per cent resulted in an offender being charged. The Home Office report says "it is hard to determine precise trends over time as recording practice has shifted several times, but examination of historical reports suggests that detection rates for vehicle crime shifted little during the 1990s, through the rise and then fall in crime. So there is little evidence to suggest that the fall has been due to an increased number of offenders being caught. Evidence presented in the rest of the Home Office report suggests instead the other factors are likely to have been responsible for the fall in vehicle crime, including the spread of electronic immobilisers, which deterred offenders rather than causing more to be apprehended." A feature in this week's issue of Classic Car Weekly highlights the most stolen 1980s classics as the Vauxhaul Nova (98), Ford Sierra (78), Ford Escort MkII (48), Peugeot 205 (34) and Peugeot 405 (33) - the figures in brackets are the theft rates per 1,000 vehicles. Posted: 160115 |
| ||||||||
 |  | ||||||||
