Car thefts rise more than 50% in a decade as only 3% end in charges

Vehicle thefts in England and Wales have risen by more than 50% over the past decade, according to analysis of Home Office data. Just 3% of offences last year resulted in a charge or a summons. Police officers say they are under-resourced to tackle the problem.

On average, one car is stolen every four minutes, and the number of cars being stolen has almost doubled in the last decade. The rise is being driven by a huge global demand for car parts, higher car prices, and the widespread availability of high-tech kits that make stealing cars easy.

Criminals are increasingly organised and well-equipped. Cars that were once mainly stolen by joyriders are now taken to order in seconds. Police say gangs are using more sophisticated methods, including disabling video doorbells to avoid being caught on camera.

Victims describe frightening ordeals. Mike said he walked down his stairs and found a masked man in his house wearing a balaclava. "I think it's probably fair to say that I was kind of scared for my life," he said. The thieves wanted the keys to his car, a tactic known as creeping. Rosemary, who lives in Warwickshire, has had her car stolen twice in three years. "You can see the lights go on in the car and they're gone seconds," she said. "I've done nothing wrong. I am the victim in all of this and yet I'm the one that will continually pay the price."

The kit used by thieves includes military-grade signal jammers, which can wipe out almost any electronic signal in an area. There are key copiers that can create another key for a car, and relay attacks that sniff out the signal from a key inside a house. Experts say they are seeing more CAN bus injection attacks, where criminals gain access to a car's electronic circuit, often by drilling a hole in the back. They plug in a device, open the car, and start it. Sometimes they cover up the hole to trick any police officers who are watching.

During a ride-along with the Metropolitan Police in east London, officers spotted a car running cloned number plates, often used by criminals to make one vehicle appear to be another. They soon found the SEAT had been stolen in August. Two men were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods. Officers were constantly pulled in different directions and attended multiple incidents, which took them away from targeting known car thieves.

Most stolen vehicle cases are not solved, despite a recent dip in overall numbers. There are still well north of 100,000 vehicle crimes reported in a year. One officer said: "Although it's declined, one is too many. What we're really looking for is organised criminality. So we are trying to go up the chain of that crime and we're trying to find the people who are organising this, making these vehicles and making people's lives a misery."

The Home Office pointed to a recent fall in recorded vehicle theft and said it continues to support police. A documentary, Stolen: Chasing Britain's Car Thieves, is available on iPlayer.