Car theft on the wane

THE number of cars stolen in Australia declined significantly last year following a record nine consecutive quarters of reduced vehicle theft.

Figures provided to GoAuto by the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council reveal the most populated states – NSW and Victoria – experienced another substantial fall in stolen vehicle numbers during 2004.

Although a staggering 32,358 vehicles were stolen in NSW last year, the figure represents a 4.9 per cent reduction on 2003, while 19,249 vehicle thefts in Victoria during 2004 is 14.2 per cent down year-on-year.

The only other jurisdiction to have released full-year figures for 2004, the Northern Territory, experienced a massive 27.7 per cent reduction in vehicle theft, with just 628 cars stolen last year.

While official post-September 2004 national vehicle theft figures will not be available until mid-February, the government and insurance industry-backed council says the substantial vehicle theft reduction experienced in NSW and Victoria, which drive national vehicle theft trends, will almost certainly be reflected Australia-wide.

Asked what drove last year’s significant theft reduction – and a sustained fall in the number of stolen vehicles in Australia since 2001 – council director of strategy and programming Geoff Hughes said a combination of factors were re-sponsible.

"A sharper focus by the council on everything to do with theft, greater police focus on theft after perhaps taking their eye off the ball in the previous five years and more secure registration and identification processes by transport agencies generally have all made it harder for criminals," he said.

"To a lesser extent, a surge in new vehicle sales has also increased the newness of the national vehicle fleet, making it more resistant to theft."The ACT posted the largest reduction in vehicle theft in the 12 months to September 2004, with just 1865 cars stolen or 27.1 per cent fewer than in the same period to September 2003 – well above the national average reduction of 12.6 per cent.

But the ACT still experiences a high level of car theft, with some 8.65 stolen vehicles per 1000 registered and 5.76 thefts per 1000 head of population.

This compares to just 4.34 vehicles stolen per 1000 registrations (and just 3.13 stolen per 1000 population) in Queensland, which experienced the lowest car theft rate to September 2004, but still recorded 12,065 stolen vehicles in the 12-month period.

In terms of the number of vehicles recovered, Tasmania led the way with 90.8 per cent, followed by the NT (86.1%), SA (84.6%), Queensland (79.8%) and Victoria (76.5%).

Meantime, the ACT (71.7%), NSW (70.8%) and WA (69.0%) fall well below the national stolen vehicle recovery average of 75.2 per cent.

In a worrying trend, while older vehicles are more commonly stolen, newer vehicles experienced lower recovery rates in the October 2003-September 2004 period.

This suggests theft for economic gain and organised vehicle theft remain significant issues. Of the 88,000 cars stolen in Australia last year, 20,000 won’t be seen again.

While a small number will have been dumped in water or bushland, the vast majority would have been stolen by professional car thieves before being rebirthed or stripped for their parts.

The theft reduction council says the means by which vehicles are identified and the ease with which most vehicles can be removed of their identities is the most significant issue in tackling this.

"One of the biggest issues as far as we’re concerned is vehicle identification," said Mr Hughes.

About 15 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia are marked with VIN-based microdot identification, which the council supports and would like to see expanded.

A study compared BMW, HSV and Subaru vehicles fitted with Datadot technology with a control group of predecessors without microdots and found theft and recovery rates were between 60 and 90 per cent better.

But Mr Hughes said cost and logistical issues have prevented microdot identification extending beyond a small group of prestige and performance models onto a high-volume production line.

He also cited Subaru’s Impreza WRX – which was a ram-raider favourite in NSW prior to the 2003 model that featured a keypad security system and Datadots – as an example of increased security reaping rewards. It went on to experience a 92 per cent reduction in thefts and reduced insurance premiums as a result.

The council says the high number of older models stolen for short-term use is evident by recovery figures and underlines the impact of improved security features such as engine immobilisers, which became a legal requirement for all new cars in June 2001 but are fitted to less than half of all vehicles on the road today.

Immobilisers have been fitted to some cars since 1992, however many contained design flaws. When the council was established in 1999, just 36 per cent of all vehicles were fitted with immobilisers and the figure remains just 44 per cent of the fleet.

"The rest will remain easy targets for car thieves until their owners wake up and for less than $200 fit an immobiliser," said Mr Hughes, who claims three out of four vehicles stolen constitute opportunistic thefts by the likes of juvenile offenders for the purpose of joy-riding or as a result of a house burglary.

"It’s not unknown for a car thief to steal between 300 and 400 cars before they’re 17," he said.

Asked if Australia’s sustained reduction in vehicle theft could spell the demise of the NMVTRC, whose initial five-year term has been extended by the council's funding partners to the end of 2006, Mr Hughes said: "There’s a risk of that, which is why we’re set up the way we are and are subject to further review.

"But we are the mortar that holds the bricks together and without the full-time focus of someone to work actively with police, insurers, the motor trades, vehicle manufacturers, registration authorities and justice agencies to implement a range of theft reduction strategies, there’s a risk of reverting to the old days.

"Traditionally, car theft would sky-rocket, there’d be a crisis conference, short-term measures were put in place to drop theft and then everyone went back to their real jobs. A lot of our approach isn’t rocket science, but it’s being recognised internationally like in The Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, the UK and New Zealand," he said.