Cars are being stolen and shipped from the U.K. within 24 hours, according to a new report which found thefts are costing British consumers and the economy billions of pounds.
Organized criminal gangs are driving the surge in car thefts in the country, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defense and security think tank said in a report published Thursday, with U.K. vehicle theft rising by 75% in the past decade to about 130,000 vehicles a year.
The cars that are being stolen are not just high-end vehicles like Range Rovers or Rolls-Royces, but everyday models like the Ford Fiesta or Focus and Volkswagen Golf, according to data on the most stolen makes and models.
They can be relatively easily snatched by organized crime gangs who use and adapt sophisticated vehicle theft technologies, which are quickly adapted when car manufacturers roll out anti-theft countermeasures, to steal cars.
Organized crime groups’ techniques, networks and tried-and-tested smuggling routes mean that cars are “stolen, loaded and taken out of the U.K. within a day,” RUSI said in its analysis, noting that vehicle theft is no longer a low-level, opportunistic crime, but rather a high-value, low-risk form of serious and organized crime with domestic and international dimensions.
