Wednesday 28th November 2012

Key theft gang jailed

'Largest car key burglary operation in Britain' cracked

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A gang of 11 burglars and stolen car handlers operating around Nottingham have been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment for their roles in what police say was the largest car key burglary operation in Britain.

This type of vehicle theft has been out of the news recently with the BMW on-board diagnostics (OBD) theft scare grabbing headlines, but cases like this show that stealing cars by first nicking the keys is still the most common method in Britain.

A survey by insurer LV in October found that that the owners' keys are used in two thirds of the 150,000 cars stolen each year.

Stolen keys used in majority of car thefts

Police say the gang, operating in the Kimberley and Eastwood area just north of Nottingham, were breaking into houses to steal keys to pinch cars and either using them in subsequent crimes or shipping them overseas.

Police estimate they stole around 60 cars over a 12 month period worth approximately £1 million. As you would expect, prestige brands were targeted mostly. The bulk of those taken were SUVs including Range Rovers, BMW X5s and Audi Q7s.

The cars for export were mainly being shipped to Africa, the investigation headed by East Midlands Special Operations Unit discovered. They passed on information on the stolen cars to the South African Police Vehicle Identification Service to be on the lookout when they arrived into Port Elizabeth. The operation found that the cars were taken over a 12-month period beginning in October 2010.

The same survey by LV discovered that only one in 50 cars is now being stolen in the traditional manner by hotwiring.

[Amirhussain]

Good

[Amirhussain]

If they can deal with the chavs from Aberdeen it would be even nicer

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Lee_sec]

Good!

Now what about the higher number of remote entry / start Fords being taken??...

[billzeebub]

Not long enough

[Twoshoe]

I don't know why more manufacturers don't have a keypad in addition to the ignition key, like Citroen Xantias do/did. Therefore you cannot start the car without having both the key and the PIN.

Say what you like about Xantias, but they were bloomin' hard to nick!

[jimbobsimmonds]

Twoshoe said:

Say what you like about Xantias, but they were bloomin' hard to nick!

Would you want to though?

[Twoshoe]

jimbobsimmonds said:

Would you want to though?

Well, probably not, but you see my point!

[NickGibbs]

GTIR said:

"The same survery.."

Oops. Fixed

[EviLScooB]

Bloody scum bags, I get so angry when these low life think they can get rich by taking from others. THEY DESERVE ALL THAT THEY GET

[Lunablack]

So an average of 2.2 years each..... I'll bet most don't do 1 year...... That'll learn em

[GTIR]

NickGibbs said:

Oops. Fixed

I deleted my post.

[mcflurry]

Twoshoe said:

I don't know why more manufacturers don't have a keypad in addition to the ignition key, like Citroen Xantias do/did. Therefore you cannot start the car without having both the key and the PIN.

I would imagine there's not a huge incentive, as the manufacturers sell more cars and parts to replace the stolen vehicles ?

[chr15b]

mcflurry said:

I would imagine there's not a huge incentive, as the manufacturers sell more cars and parts to replace the stolen vehicles ?

i dont buy that.. they spend a fortune on r&d for security. i'd suggest its more likely the majority of people would see it as a pain.

[sanguinary]

Twoshoe said:

I don't know why more manufacturers don't have a keypad in addition to the ignition key, like Citroen Xantias do/did. Therefore you cannot start the car without having both the key and the PIN.

Say what you like about Xantias, but they were bloomin' hard to nick!

I unplugged the keypad on my old Xantia whilst doing some work on the car. It still started fine.

[Jakdaw]

Interesting statistics... so:

66% stolen using owners' keys
2% stolen after 'hotwiring'

... so does that leave 32% stolen with the BMW OBD attack? Or are there other possibilities or vulnerable manufacturers. Can't believe a significant number are stolen other than under their own power (ie towed / lifted into a lorry etc)

[N88]

Lunablack said:

So an average of 2.2 years each..... I'll bet most don't do 1 year

This.

Bloody ridiculous.

[Captain Muppet]

Jakdaw said:

Interesting statistics... so:

66% stolen using owners' keys
2% stolen after 'hotwiring'

... so does that leave 32% stolen with the BMW OBD attack? Or are there other possibilities or vulnerable manufacturers. Can't believe a significant number are stolen other than under their own power (ie towed / lifted into a lorry etc)

From just looking at an empty driveway how do you tell if the car was hotwired, started with a duplicate key or beamed up from space? Surely the data can only be based on recovered cars, so it can't be that trustworthy.

[Silent1]

Wow, an average of 2 years each, not a bad risk to business

[Prof Prolapse]

Captain Muppet said:

Jakdaw said:

Interesting statistics... so:

66% stolen using owners' keys
2% stolen after 'hotwiring'

... so does that leave 32% stolen with the BMW OBD attack? Or are there other possibilities or vulnerable manufacturers. Can't believe a significant number are stolen other than under their own power (ie towed / lifted into a lorry etc)

From just looking at an empty driveway how do you tell if the car was hotwired, started with a duplicate key or beamed up from space? Surely the data can only be based on recovered cars, so it can't be that trustworthy.

Car jacking? Stolen whilst warming up in the driveway?

[Captain Muppet]

Prof Prolapse said:

Captain Muppet said:

Jakdaw said:

Interesting statistics... so:

66% stolen using owners' keys
2% stolen after 'hotwiring'

... so does that leave 32% stolen with the BMW OBD attack? Or are there other possibilities or vulnerable manufacturers. Can't believe a significant number are stolen other than under their own power (ie towed / lifted into a lorry etc)

From just looking at an empty driveway how do you tell if the car was hotwired, started with a duplicate key or beamed up from space? Surely the data can only be based on recovered cars, so it can't be that trustworthy.

Car jacking? Stolen whilst warming up in the driveway?

They would be included in the 66% that involve the owners' keys.