£1.8m supercar haul including Porsche 911 seized in police crackdown

SWNS

West Midlands Police have seized over 200 stolen vehicles worth £1.8m in a crackdown on professional car thieves.  The operation followed a 35% rise in thefts, with cases increasing from 11,990 in 2021 to 16,232 in 2023.  Among the recovered vehicles were a £140,000 Porsche 911 GT3, a £169,000 Bentley Bentayga, and a £90,000 Land Rover Defender.  Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the initiative aims to disrupt criminal networks, while Superintendent Gareth Mason urged the public to report suspicious activity.

Transcript

00:00So my name is Simon Foster and I'm the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands.

00:07Vehicle crime has been a challenge in the West Midlands in recent times, pleased to

00:10say that the recent ONS stats, the Office for National Statistics stats that were published

00:16a week or so ago have illustrated an over 10% reduction in vehicle crime in the West

00:22Midlands, so that's welcome, however I emphasise we're not remotely complacent about that because

00:28one victim of vehicle crime is one too many, so we've been investing in a whole variety

00:33of different projects in the West Midlands to prevent and tackle vehicle crime and you

00:38can see today the outcome and the impact that that is making, so this particular project

00:45that we're talking about today has been running since May 2024 and since then it's been responsible

00:54for recovering over 200 vehicles with a total market value of £1.8m and since 16th January

01:02over a period of 16 days West Midlands Police have recovered 27 vehicles and that's to a

01:09total market value of £527,000, so you can see that this is a project that I've been

01:16working on with West Midlands Police, investing and supporting it, they've been working in

01:21partnership with the DVLA and as a consequence of that I do think it's having a real significant

01:26and serious impact on vehicle crime and it's sending out a message to members of organised

01:32crime groups who are often involved in this type of criminality that vehicle crime will

01:37not be tolerated in the West Midlands and we are doing absolutely everything within

01:41our power to prevent and tackle vehicle crime in the West Midlands.

01:44The money that I've invested most recently this year has been £11,000, that's been paying

01:49for additional policing activity with a view to this particular project and that investment

01:58so far since 16th January has paid for 16 days of operational policing time and I do

02:06think that's had a significant impact because over that 16 day period West Midlands Police

02:12have been able to recover 27 vehicles with a total market value of £527,000 and this

02:18particular project that I've invested in is going to be running until the end of March.

02:24Some of these vehicles that have been recovered as part of this project will be potentially

02:29returned to their owners, some of them will go to the insurance companies because those

02:33owners will have already received a payout in terms of an insurance claim so it rather

02:37depends on the particular circumstances of the case.

02:41I'm not aware of a breakdown in terms of the statistics around particular types of car

02:49that might or might not be stolen in these circumstances, no I'm not aware of that.

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