X5 favourite among car crooks
According to the latest figures from TRACKER, the BMW X5 is still the favourite among car crooks, topping its most stolen and recovered table again in 2014 for the sixth year in a row.
Last year TRACKER recovered over £11 million worth of stolen vehicles and returned them to their owners. The average value of cars stolen and recovered in 2014 increased by over eight per cent, hitting £25,600, compared to £23,600 in 2013.
For the past three years, BMW models have dominated the top 10, but 2014 saw an increase in the range of Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover marques being stolen and recovered. The BMW M3 moved down from second place to sixth, in 2014, whilst the Mercedes C Class moved up a place to take the number two slot.
The Range Rover Sport jumps four places, up to third position and the Land Rover Discovery makes a new entry at fifth, suggesting that 4x4s were in big demand for organised crime gangs 2014.
Whilst Porsche enjoyed year-on-year new car sales growth in 2014, it dropped out of the TRACKER Top Ten most stolen and recovered league table completely; it sat at ninth place in 2013 with the 911.
‘The 2014 figures illustrate that prestige models continue to catch the eye of thieves, but the average value of stolen cars we recovered was just £25,600, suggesting that older models of prestige cars could be just as attractive to criminals as newer models,‘ explained Andy Barrs, head of police liaison at TRACKER. ‘Interestingly, the number of vehicles that are being stolen without keys has steadily risen over the last few years, accounting for 43% in 2014. We believe this is down to the growth in car hacking where criminals target keyless vehicles by bypassing their security systems, using technology they’ve bought on the internet.
‘Indeed, experts, such as Thatcham Research have warned that as keyless security systems become commonplace in cars, the skills to bypass these will be widely practiced by most criminals and in turn, lower value keyless vehicles will be equally at risk. We recommend that car owners invest in an added layer of security by using tracking devices that harness the latest technology.’
