Newly released data shows Victoria leads nation for car thefts
VICTORIA has become Australia’s car theft capital, with brazen thieves stealing from more than 15,000 motorists in the last calendar year. LGA STATS: Are you in a car theft hotspot?
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VICTORIA has become Australia’s car-theft capital with more than 15,000 vehicles stolen last year — more than 40 every day.
Nearly a third of the nation’s car thefts in 2017 happened here, startling new figures by the Nat- ional Vehicle Theft Reduction Council reveal.
The average value of a stolen car is $11,000 — meaning thieves are taking $450,000 worth of vehicles a day, or more than $3 million worth each week.
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Thousands more cars were stolen here than in NSW, where an extra two million people live. A hardcore group of repeat offenders is believed to be behind the scourge.
NVTRC executive director Ray Carroll said Victoria had overtaken NSW after recording a surge over the past three years.
“We saw a spike that just wasn’t being seen in other parts of the country, primarily driven by young offenders,” he said.
“The total number of young offenders is down, it has been for a long time, but a smaller group of high-rate offenders are still committing these crimes.
“We’re not seeing that concentration of offending groups in other jurisdictions.”
Older Nissan Pulsars, Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons are Victoria’s most-stolen cars.
Hume and Greater Geelong were the council areas to suffer most from vehicle theft, according to figures obtained by the Herald Sun.
Police on Friday said Victoria had seen its biggest drop in crime for more than a decade.
But sex offences soared more than 15 per cent year on year. In the vehicle thefts category, most in Victoria were stolen to commit other crimes and then dumped.
“It is fair to say that since these figures started rising in 2013 (in Victoria), everyone in other states has thrown the kitchen sink at it,” Mr Carroll said.
But youths stealing cars in Victoria did so to commit crime or go joy-riding.
“They’re not interested in the car’s value as such. Often they’ll crash it or burn it.”
Drivers relaxing after a working week were key targets, with the NVTRC data showing more cars stolen between 4pm and 8pm on Fridays than at any other time.
“Those statistics line up quite clearly with when more young people are out and about,” Mr Carroll said.
According to the latest figures from the Crime Statistics Agency, theft of motor vehicle offences dropped by 22 per cent in 2017.
Over the same period thefts from motor vehicles dropped by 23 per cent.
Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill said police had made significant ground in driving down vehicle theft.
“These high-volume crimes have been a key focus for Victoria Police over the past few years, and these results prove that our sustained focus on enforcement and prevention activities is paying off,” he said.
“All of this work is helping to bring down these numbers, but we still have a way to go.”
Mr Hill said immobilisers had made newer cars more difficult to steal.
“As a result, criminals are now resorting to more brazen and sometimes violent methods to steal vehicles, such as aggravated burglaries or carjackings,” he said.
“Our intelligence suggests that in 2017, the motivating factor in around 625 aggravated burglaries was the theft of keys in order to steal a car.
“People can reduce the risk of becoming a victim of vehicle theft by taking simple steps to secure car keys so they aren’t easily accessible within the home and cannot be seen through windows.”