- Published
It is 01:00 on a Thursday and we are in the back of an unmarked police car on the hunt for vehicle thieves in east London.
asserted
we → publish → London
A call comes in over the radio about a stolen Ford Transit van.
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call → come → van
Within 25 minutes officers have found it, chased it down and arrested a suspect.
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officers → find → suspect
Officers tell us the night has been successful, with further arrests made, yet across the UK a car is stolen every four minutes.
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car → tell → UK
Despite a recent drop, vehicle thefts are up almost 50% in England and Wales compared with a decade ago, according to Home Office data.
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thefts → compare → data
Last year, just 3% of vehicle theft offences resulted in a charge or summons.
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% → result → charge
As well as spending time on the front line in London and Sussex, we have privately spoken to 20 police officers from six forces.
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we → spend → forces
They told us while they have the skills and experience to tackle vehicle crime, they are overstretched, under-resourced and struggling to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
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they → tell → networks
Thieves are becoming more confident.
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Thieves → become → ?
A man who claims he receives stolen vehicles and breaks them into parts at a so-called "chop shop" told the BBC he does not fear the authorities, because they "couldn't catch a cold".
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they → claim → cold
Cars are stolen to order, and moved across the country or dismantled within hours, say police, making them difficult to recover and suspects hard to track.
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suspects → steal → hours
Many vehicles are sent overseas to places like the United Arab Emirates, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Jamaica.
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vehicles → send → Congo
Victims of car theft have told us they feel frustrated and helpless.
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they → tell → us
One woman said it took car thieves just 35 seconds to steal her BMW, yet police only began investigating a day later.
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police → say → BMW
Another man said he feared for his life when masked thieves broke into his home demanding his car keys.
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thieves → say → keys
The success criminals are having is also hitting motorists more widely, with insurance quotes having risen by 82% since 2021, according to security think tank the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).
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quotes → have → tank
Our night-time ride in the unmarked police car takes place during an eight-hour Metropolitan Police operation targeting vehicle crime.
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ride → take → crime
"Havering has been affected quite badly," PC Yoosef Outaleb tells us - partly because thieves use the back roads as a cut-through to neighbouring Essex.
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thieves → affect → Essex
Police say the county has particularly high numbers of illegal "chop shops", which dismantle vehicles for parts so they can be sold and exported.
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they → say → parts
"They [the criminals] don't have borders, whereas we do," he says.
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he → have → borders
When criminal activity straddles police force boundaries, investigations can often slow down - which gangs look to exploit.
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gangs → straddle → boundaries
Two stolen vehicles are recovered, yet Met officers also uncover other crimes.
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officers → steal → crimes
They pursue armed robbers on e-bikes, apprehend a drunk driver and arrest three men in a car full of Class A drugs, cash and phones.
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They → pursue → drugs
It is all important work, but police admit that responding to these crimes diverts them away from targeting known vehicle thieves.
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responding → admit → thieves
The thieves, known as "grafters" within criminal networks, are out every night stealing cars, the man claiming to work at a chop shop told us.
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man → know → us
Many vehicles are then broken into parts.
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vehicles → break → parts
Such is the demand, he says, that deals to re-sell the parts are often done before he has even finished dismantling a vehicle.
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he → say → vehicle
Some stolen vehicles are left intact, given new number plates and sold in the UK or abroad, while others are used to facilitate drug dealing and human trafficking, or as getaway vehicles for robberies and break-ins.
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others → steal → robberies
While the long-term trend presents difficult reading for police, reported vehicle thefts fell 5% in England and Wales last year, to 119,000.
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thefts → present → 119,000
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, vehicle thefts remained largely flat, at about 5,000 and 1,200 a year respectively.
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thefts → remain → 5,000
Fifteen of the 32 police forces in England and Wales that responded to a BBC Freedom of Information request said they do not employ any full-time, specially-trained stolen vehicle examiners, who can carry out detailed examinations of cars and bolster investigations.
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who → respond → investigations
But Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Grahame, the national police lead on tackling vehicle crime, tells us officers' efforts - like the night-time operation in east London - are having an impact.
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efforts → tackle → impact
UK forces are also collaborating with Interpol, shipping companies and vehicle manufacturers to address an issue "that spans globally", she says.
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she → collaborate → issue
She admits current theft levels are unacceptable, but says there is no funding to routinely carry out large-scale operations within current police budgets, set by the Home Office.
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levels → admit → Office
Instead, forces organise "intensification weeks" aimed at disrupting criminal networks.
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forces → organise → networks
One involving 32 forces last month, called Operation Alliances, led to at least 286 arrests and 319 vehicles seized.
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One → involve → arrests
In East Sussex in September, where we witnessed a smaller, targeted operation, we were told that 17 cars had been stolen in the Hastings and Rother areas in the previous two months.
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cars → witness → months
Many of the vehicles were keyless Toyota RAV4s - taken by thieves using technology that bypasses vehicle security systems.
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that → take → systems
Three of the vehicles had been taken the previous night.
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Three → take → vehicles
Within hours, officers recovered all three vehicles and arrested three suspects, including one they believe had been in charge of the other two.
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they → recover → two
…and 33 more, not listed.
The Aporia
