Feb 112011
Media information: 21 January 2011
Following a recent burglary at BBC Breakfast presenter Susanna Reid’s home during which her car was stolen, the UK’s national unit for vehicle crime is warning people to be wary of advertising their vehicles to criminals.
If you’re trying to sell your home you’ll know that good photographs of the property are key to generating interest. But some estate agents encourage owners to include their prestige vehicles in these property photographs, which could be providing additional information to the wrong people. The Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS) is warning homeowners that thieves are known to use information on estate agents’ websites to identify and locate cars they want to steal.
With the introduction of immobilisers and the days of ‘hotwiring’ car thefts long past, there is evidence, says AVCIS, that organised crime gangs are stealing cars to order. Driving the streets looking for suitable cars is risky and inefficient. Property websites allow thieves to do their research remotely, scanning through the websites looking for images that also capture desirable cars. Due to the nature of the sites, thieves are then able to easily locate the vehicles.
Once a suitable car has been located, they are targeted in one of two ways: either the house will be burgled in order to gain access to the car keys, or it could be cloned and have its identity attributed to an identical car that has been stolen elsewhere.
“People must be aware of what information and images they upload to the internet and whose hands this could end up in,” said AVCIS’ Head of Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hooper. “In the wrong hands, something as innocent as a photo on an estate agent’s website, or even on social media sites such as Facebook, could be used to locate a vehicle desired by a thief.
“These are not necessarily extremely high-end vehicles: diverse overseas markets are driving thefts of a range of vehicles from Ford Transits to Audi TTs,” continued DCI Hooper. “We’re encouraging those uploading property images onto the internet to be aware of additional information contained in the shots that could lead to them being targeted by savvy criminals.”
For more information, please contact a member of the AVCIS PR team either by telephone: 01908 635300, or on AVCISPR@rsm-live.com.
