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Business Standard
a day ago
- Automotive
- Business Standard
UK car theft crisis near 15-year high as manufacturers face high-tech gangs
To the untrained eye, the red shipping container at Felixstowe looked no different to the thousands of others stacked up at Britain's busiest seaport. Destined for Africa, its contents were listed as 'household goods,' but to police officer Adam Gibson, something didn't add up. So workers broke into the container. Gibson was right. Inside were four sport utility vehicles—three Toyota RAV 4s and a Lexus RX 450h. Two were on the ground and the others were dangling from the roof, squeezed in like Tetris blocks. After they were lifted out on a forklift, Gibson ran checks. The cars were all stolen and their license plates had been changed. The thieves he's up against are not just opportunists or joyriders. Most vehicle theft nowadays is orchestrated by organized gangs cashing in on overseas demand for SUVs. And with numbers climbing, police have struggled to stop it: for each stolen car Gibson and his colleagues intercept, he estimates that another nine slip through their fingers. 'It's not amateurs that are playing at this,' Gibson said. 'This is proper business.' As cars have become increasingly high-tech, a technological arms race has also kicked off between manufacturers and thieves. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that 58 per cent of vehicle thefts in England and Wales in the year ending April 2024 happened with the help of 'signal-jammers'—electronic tools capable of disrupting remote locking devices. That was up from 40 per cent the previous year. Toyota, which also owns Lexus, said theft in recent years had reached 'almost epidemic proportion in the UK.' In response, carmakers have introduced keyless technology that 'goes to sleep' when not in use, trackers to keep tabs on a stolen vehicle's location and other security measures. Toyota said it's invested millions in combatting signal jammers, which can cost as much as £30,000 apiece. Jaguar Land Rover, whose luxury SUVs are so attractive to thieves that insurance companies have been reluctant to cover them, recently rolled out a software upgrade for some models that makes it impossible to drive a car without having its keys. 'It's like a game of tennis,' Gibson said. 'Criminals come out with a new bit of kit, manufacturers will get round it, sometimes by buying it on the dark web and reverse-engineering it. But five minutes later, once they've stopped it, they've come out with a new bit of kit.' By the time a stolen car arrives at a port, owners have usually already filed a claim with insurers, which tend to quickly write off a vehicle and pay up. Those hoping to recover their cars, however, stand the best chance of doing so while they're still in the UK. Even if trackers do locate the vehicle abroad, it can be difficult to get a foreign country's authorities to collaborate, and repatriation costs are not cheap. According to data from NaVCIS and analysts at Thatcham Research, nearly 40 per cent of stolen cars intercepted at British ports between 2021 and 2024 were destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose centralized location and access to seaports makes it a good hub for distributing cars across Africa. An additional 20 per cent were headed to the United Arab Emirates, which saw normal delivery channels disrupted last year following a flood. Almost 7 per cent were to be sent to Cyprus and nearly 6 per cent to Jamaica, both countries where cars drive on the left, like in the UK. Another 5 per cent were headed to Georgia, which offers easy access to Russia, where cars are sold on the black market to bypass international sanctions. At Felixstowe, Gibson relies on intuition and red flags to spot suspicious shipments. A container registered to a person associated with previous criminal activity might set off an alarm, for instance, as would a container that's heavier or lighter than its listed contents suggest. Yet with around 60,000 containers moving through UK ports every day, gangs exploit the fact that the vast majority of them will never be checked. 'They know there's a very slim chance of actually being caught,' said Simon Hurr, a vehicle security expert at Ford. And among those who were caught and charged with vehicle theft between 2022 and 2023, the conviction rate was just 2 per cent. Alongside Gibson, NaVCIS employs just two other patrol officers to cover four ports in the south of England, and about nine additional office staff. After the Home Office cut support for the agency, it has relied entirely on private funding—primarily from the Finance & Leasing Association, the trade body for motor finance—to cover its costs. As car theft has become more organized, however, 'policing hasn't kept pace,' said Mark Kameen, project lead for the recently established National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership (NVCRP). The joint initiative, put together by police, the Home Office and automakers like JLR and Toyota, helps coordinate the response to vehicle thefts, including by organizing raids on gangs. While owners are compensated when their cars are taken, vehicle theft isn't a victimless crime. The more cars are stolen, the more insurance premiums go up. In the first three months of the year, British car owners were quoted an average of almost £800 a year for insurance—down from a peak 18 months ago but still far higher than the historical average. The government has taken steps to crack down on car theft. As well as helping set up and fund the NVCRP, it proposed measures in February that would impose a maximum sentence of five years in prison on anyone in possession of a signal jammer. Carmakers are also starting to see their own efforts pay off. JLR said the theft rate of its vehicles has fallen by over 50 per cent since it introduced new security measures in November 2022, and that fewer than four out of every 1,000 of its new cars are stolen. Toyota carried out its own trial last year, fitting some cars with tracking systems. Of those that went missing, 96 per cent were recovered thanks to the trackers, the company said. It now plans to roll them out in certain models as an optional feature. These changes have also had ripple effects on the black market, according to Gibson. While SUVs are still most in demand, he's noticed a move away from luxury vehicles. 'Five years ago, it was Range Rovers, BMW X5s, high-end Mercedes. In the last two or three years, we've started to see Hyundais, Kias and Toyotas.' Cutting open his final container after a busy day at Felixstowe, Gibson discovers a mess of valuable car parts alongside a more curious item: a London ambulance that he suspects is on its way to Ukraine. It's hauled out with a forklift, revealing chopped-up cars stuffed in back of the container that can be sold on for parts. More valuable components are crammed into the ambulance to make use of the space. Gibson's work here is finished. What happens next is up to the insurer.
The Star
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Star
UK car theft crisis pits manufacturers against high-tech gangs
To the untrained eye, the red shipping container at Felixstowe looked no different to the thousands of others stacked up at Britain's busiest seaport. Destined for Africa, its contents were listed as 'household goods,' but to police officer Adam Gibson, something didn't add up. So workers broke into the container. Gibson was right. Inside were four sport utility vehicles – three Toyota RAV 4s and a Lexus RX 450h. Two were on the ground and the others were dangling from the roof, squeezed in like Tetris blocks. After they were lifted out on a forklift, Gibson ran checks. The cars were all stolen and their license plates had been changed. Car theft is a growing problem in the UK. Almost 130,000 vehicles were stolen in the year ending March 2024 – near a 15-year high – costing insurers £640mil (RM 3.67 bil), according to the most recent data. And at least some of them are ending up overseas. As one of the few specialist officers at the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), an industry-funded police unit focused on car-related crime, Gibson's job is to scour containers and keep stolen cars from leaving the country. The thieves he's up against are not just opportunists or joyriders. Most vehicle theft nowadays is orchestrated by organised gangs cashing in on overseas demand for SUVs. And with numbers climbing, police have struggled to stop it: for each stolen car Gibson and his colleagues intercept, he estimates that another nine slip through their fingers. 'It's not amateurs that are playing at this,' Gibson said. 'This is proper business.' As cars have become increasingly high-tech, a technological arms race has also kicked off between manufacturers and thieves. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that 58% of vehicle thefts in England and Wales in the year ending April 2024 happened with the help of 'signal-jammers' – electronic tools capable of disrupting remote locking devices. That was up from 40% the previous year. Toyota, which also owns Lexus, said theft in recent years had reached 'almost epidemic proportion in the UK'. In response, carmakers have introduced keyless technology that 'goes to sleep' when not in use, trackers to keep tabs on a stolen vehicle's location and other security measures. Toyota said it's invested millions in combatting signal jammers, which can cost as much as £30,000 (RM 172,143) apiece. Jaguar Land Rover, whose luxury SUVs are so attractive to thieves that insurance companies have been reluctant to cover them, recently rolled out a software upgrade for some models that makes it impossible to drive a car without having its keys. 'It's like a game of tennis,' Gibson said. 'Criminals come out with a new bit of kit, manufacturers will get round it, sometimes by buying it on the dark web and reverse-engineering it. But five minutes later, once they've stopped it, they've come out with a new bit of kit.' By the time a stolen car arrives at a port, owners have usually already filed a claim with insurers, which tend to quickly write off a vehicle and pay up. Those hoping to recover their cars, however, stand the best chance of doing so while they're still in the UK. Even if trackers do locate the vehicle abroad, it can be difficult to get a foreign country's authorities to collaborate, and repatriation costs are not cheap. According to data from NaVCIS and analysts at Thatcham Research, nearly 40% of stolen cars intercepted at British ports between 2021 and 2024 were destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose centralised location and access to seaports makes it a good hub for distributing cars across Africa. An additional 20% were headed to the United Arab Emirates, which saw normal delivery channels disrupted last year following a flood. Almost 7% were to be sent to Cyprus and nearly 6% to Jamaica, both countries where cars drive on the left, like in the UK. Another 5% were headed to Georgia, which offers easy access to Russia, where cars are sold on the black market to bypass international sanctions. At Felixstowe, Gibson relies on intuition and red flags to spot suspicious shipments. A container registered to a person associated with previous criminal activity might set off an alarm, for instance, as would a container that's heavier or lighter than its listed contents suggest. Yet with around 60,000 containers moving through UK ports every day, gangs exploit the fact that the vast majority of them will never be checked. 'They know there's a very slim chance of actually being caught,' said Simon Hurr, a vehicle security expert at Ford. And among those who were caught and charged with vehicle theft between 2022 and 2023, the conviction rate was just 2%. Alongside Gibson, NaVCIS employs just two other patrol officers to cover four ports in the south of England, and about nine additional office staff. After the Home Office cut support for the agency, it has relied entirely on private funding – primarily from the Finance & Leasing Association, the trade body for motor finance – to cover its costs. As car theft has become more organised, however, 'policing hasn't kept pace,' said Mark Kameen, project lead for the recently established National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership (NVCRP). The joint initiative, put together by police, the Home Office and automakers like JLR and Toyota, helps coordinate the response to vehicle thefts, including by organising raids on gangs. While owners are compensated when their cars are taken, vehicle theft isn't a victimless crime. The more cars are stolen, the more insurance premiums go up. In the first three months of the year, British car owners were quoted an average of almost £800 (RM4,590) a year for insurance – down from a peak 18 months ago but still far higher than the historical average. The government has taken steps to crack down on car theft. As well as helping set up and fund the NVCRP, it proposed measures in February that would impose a maximum sentence of five years in prison on anyone in possession of a signal jammer. Carmakers are also starting to see their own efforts pay off. JLR said the theft rate of its vehicles has fallen by over 50% since it introduced new security measures in November 2022, and that fewer than four out of every 1,000 of its new cars are stolen. Toyota carried out its own trial last year, fitting some cars with tracking systems. Of those that went missing, 96% were recovered thanks to the trackers, the company said. It now plans to roll them out in certain models as an optional feature. These changes have also had ripple effects on the black market, according to Gibson. While SUVs are still most in demand, he's noticed a move away from luxury vehicles. 'Five years ago, it was Range Rovers, BMW X5s, high-end Mercedes. In the last two or three years, we've started to see Hyundais, Kias and Toyotas.' Cutting open his final container after a busy day at Felixstowe, Gibson discovers a mess of valuable car parts alongside a more curious item: a London ambulance that he suspects is on its way to Ukraine. It's hauled out with a forklift, revealing chopped-up cars stuffed in back of the container that can be sold on for parts. More valuable components are crammed into the ambulance to make use of the space. Gibson's work here is finished. What happens next is up to the insurer. – Bloomberg
Gulf News
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Gulf News
Video: Tears and joy as Indian, Filipino, Arab nurses gifted SUVs at Abu Dhabi hospital
Abu Dhabi: Tears flowed, hands trembled, and cheers erupted as 10 unsuspecting nurses sat stunned under the spotlight after being handed the keys to brand-new Toyota RAV4s. In the lead-up to International Nurses Day on May 12, Abu Dhabi-headquartered healthcare group Burjeel Holdings surprised its frontline caregivers during the Driving Force Award ceremony. These nursing heroes were selected after months of assessments across the group's facilities, recognised for their stellar performance, community service, and impact on patients, and for going above and beyond, shift after shift. While the nurses – six Indians, two Filipinos, and one each from Jordan and Egypt – had been invited under the pretext of sharing their heartwarming stories for a video shoot. They had no idea about the surprise, which triggered a wave of disbelief and emotion. Watch the video below 'Is it a matchbox?' Mei Alegre, a Nurse Manager at Burjeel Hospital, Abu Dhabi, thought she was simply there to speak about her journey. When handed the box containing the car key, she wondered if it was a matchbox. 'Never in my life did I imagine something like this. I've always loved my job, but to be appreciated like this, it's overwhelming.' Alegre, a Filipino nurse with nine years of service, recalled how former patients still greet her in the hallways, remembering the care she once gave. 'In those moments, I feel proud that I made a lasting difference. That's what matters to me.' Everyday heroes Nabil Mohamed Ikbal, a registered nurse at Lifecare Hospital, Baniyas, described the moment as 'unreal.' With four years in the system, the Indian nurse saw the award as a meaningful symbol of validation. He recalled one of his proudest moments – leading the resuscitation of a patient who had been without a pulse or breath for over 20 minutes. 'We continued CPR for 50 minutes. Everyone thought there was no hope. But the patient came back. That's the kind of team I have. That's the kind of profession nursing is.' The hospitals' backbone For Soher Mohammed Ahmed Ali, an Egyptian Nursing Educator at Medeor Hospital, Abu Dhabi, the recognition carried deep personal meaning. Having lost her father to cancer, she dedicated her life to supporting others. 'I couldn't help my father, but maybe I can help others through what I do,' she said. 'When patients or their families pray for me, when they say a quiet dua — that's more than enough. That's everything.' The recognition, she says, felt deeply personal. 'Being a nurse is part of who I am. This award reminds me that our presence and our care truly matter.' 'They don't make headlines' The other winners included Mohammed Hamid Taher from Jordan; Mark Darrel Manalo De La Cruz from the Philippines; and Ani M. Jose, Archanakumari Viswanatha Panicker, Priyankadevi Kaleeswaran, Sibi Mathew, and Vishnuprasad Sasthamkovil – all from India. John Sunil, Group CEO of Burjeel Holdings, who handed over the keys alongside Group Co-CEO Safeer Ahamed, pointed out that the real stories of nursing don't always make the headlines. 'These awards are our way of saying: we see you, we value you, and we're deeply grateful.' This week, in the run-up to International Nurses Day, another 100 exemplary nurses across Burjeel hospitals and medical centres will each receive a cash prize.
Epoch Times
02-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Canada Urgently Needs a Watchdog for Government Waste
Commentary Canada's federal spending is growing, deficits are mounting, and waste is going unchecked. As governments look for ways to control costs, some experts say Canada needs a dedicated agency to root out inefficiency—before it's too late. One of the Trump administration's policies is very good, in theory at least: the Department of Government Efficiency. While that term could be an oxymoron, like 'political wisdom,' if DOGE proves useful, a Canadian version might be, too. DOGE aims to identify wasteful, duplicative, unnecessary, or destructive government programs and replace outdated data systems. It also seeks to lower overall costs and ensure mechanisms are in place to evaluate proposed programs for effectiveness and value for money. This can, and often does, involve eliminating departments and, eventually, thousands of jobs. Some new roles within DOGE may need to become permanent. The goal in the United States is to reduce annual operating costs and ensure government spending grows more slowly than revenues. Washington's spending has exploded in recent years. The U.S. federal deficit now exceeds 6 percent of gross domestic product. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the cost of servicing that debt is rising at an unsustainable rate. Canada's latest budget deficit of $61.9 billion in fiscal 2023–24 amounts to about 2 percent of GDP—less alarming than our neighbour's situation, but still significant. It adds to the federal debt of $1.236 trillion, about 41 percent of our estimated $3 trillion GDP. Ottawa's public accounts show expenses at 17.8 percent of GDP, up from about 14 percent just eight years ago. Interest on the growing debt accounted for 9.1 percent of revenues in the most recent fiscal year, up from 5 percent just two years ago. Related Stories 6/25/2024 2/24/2024 The The CTF also noted that Ottawa hired 108,000 additional staff over the past eight years, at an average annual cost of more than $125,000 each. Hiring based on population growth alone would have added just 35,500 staff, saving about $9 billion annually. The scale of waste is staggering. Canada Post, the CBC, and Via Rail collectively lose more than $5 billion a year. For reference, $1 billion could buy Toyota RAV4s for over 25,600 families. Ottawa also duplicates functions handled by provincial governments, often stepping into areas of constitutional provincial jurisdiction. Shifting federal programs in health, education, environment, and welfare to the provinces could save many more billions annually. Poor infrastructure decisions have also cost Canadians dearly—most notably the $33.4 billion blown on what should have been a relatively simple expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Better project management and staffing could have prevented that disaster. Federal IT systems are another money pit, as shown by the $4 billion Phoenix payroll debacle. Then there's the Green slush fund, which misallocated nearly $900 million. Even more worrying, the rapidly expanding Old Age Supplement and Guaranteed Income Security programs are unfunded, unlike the Canada Pension Plan. Their combined cost is already roughly equal to the federal deficit and could soon become unmanageable. Canada is sleepwalking toward financial ruin. A Canadian version of DOGE—Canada Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Team, or CAETT—is urgently needed. The Office of the Auditor General does an admirable job identifying waste and poor performance, but it's not proactive and lacks enforcement powers. At present, there is no mechanism in place to evaluate or eliminate ineffective programs. CAETT could fill that gap and help secure a prosperous future for Canadians. Ian Madsen is a senior policy analyst at the Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why some Cleveland police cars will have a new look
CLEVELAND (WJW) – The Cleveland Division of Police is adding to its fleet. In a press release Wednesday, the department said it was adding some vehicles that wouldn't look like a traditional police car. Ice storm warning: Details here Instead, the 2025 Toyota RAV4s are going to be used in their crisis intervention programs. All CDP officers undergo Crisis Intervention Training, the department says. The department pairs Specialized Crisis Team officers with licensed clinicians to respond to individuals in crisis. True Value distribution center in Westlake to close, 82 workers face layoffs The new vehicles will be used by these teams. 'Our vehicles are the first thing citizens see, and it is important that our initial impression is a positive one,' Police Chief Annie Todd said in a press release. 'This holistic approach to citizens in crisis provides us with the best opportunity to achieve positive solutions.' Police say two vehicles are already in service, with eight more on the way. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
