Profit Motivated Vehicle Theft in Australia

Profit motivated theft refers to vehicles stolen to be converted into cash through illegal transactions. In a 2016 study by the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council (NMVTRC), profit motivated vehicle theft increased by 2% in 2015/16.

Of the larger states in Australia, Victoria and Queensland both had major increases in profit motivated vehicle theft with 27% and 16% respectively. See figure 2 below.

Over the five-year period, New South Wales had a major fall in thefts, down by 43%. Vehicles aged 16 years and older accounted for two-thirds of the reduction. South Australia also had a large reduction, down by 35%. Profit motivated theft remains stable in the NT, ACT and Tasmania. See figure 3 below.

Unlike short-term thefts, wherein smaller cars make up most of the theft numbers, large vehicles remain the most popular target for profit motivated vehicle theft. The popular makes and models of vehicles stolen in the 2015/16 year were:

• the Toyota Hilux (MY06-13) with 190 thefts;
• the Holden Commodore VE (MY06-13) with 190 thefts; and
• the Holden Commodore VT (MY97-00) with 185 stolen not recovered.

 

Profit Motivated Vehicle Theft Assessment

Electronic Hacking

Less than one in 100 thefts involve electronic hacking

• Key and transponder theft accounts for the majority of late model (secure vehicle) theft.
• Criminal operations have been targeting Toyota models using a combination of key cloning and electronic attack.

Dismantling For Parts

Accounts for one in four profit motivated vehicle thefts

• It is much less risky for criminals to dismantle or strip major components of a vehicle due to whole vehicle laundering becoming nearly impossible to execute without being caught.
• Stripped car bodies are more often crushed or shredded than being simply abandoned to minimise the theft being traced back to the criminal.
• Stolen parts are recycled into the market in many ways:
  •  as a substitute for legitimate parts in crash repairs
  • the replacement of worn parts in programmed maintenance or servicing
  • exchange for other goods like firearms and drugs
  • upgrading standard or base model vehicles
  • rebuilding repairable written off vehicles

Conversion to Scrap Metal

Accounts for one in four profit motivated vehicle thefts

• The number of older cars being stolen for their scrap metal value is greatly influenced by the swing in scrap metal prices.
• Legitimate industry participants are finding it very hard to compete against rogue operators who give off the appearance of regulatory and industry standard compliance.
• The prevailing age profile of profit-oriented thefts shows that theft for scrap could account for up to half of all profit motivated thefts.

Rebirthed or Cloned

Accounts for less than one in seven profit motivated vehicle thefts due to registration reforms

• Car criminals converting whole vehicles into cash has greatly reduced by the significant restriction of written-off vehicle (WOV) regimes that have lowered the pool of available vehicles.

Exported as Whole Vehicle, Parts or Scrap

Estimated to account for four in 10 profit motivate vehicle thefts. The rapid increase of new entrants in “cash for cars” sector focused on scrap metal exports

• Victoria police have identified that the scrap metal and recycling industries have an alarming level of regulatory non-compliance and as a result this helps facilitate the intentional and incidental laundering of stolen vehicles.

Dumped in Waterways and Bushland

Estimated to account for one in 20 non-recovered stolen vehicles

• Pre-1999 vehicles made up three in 10 non-recovered vehicles in 2015/16.
• Around a quarter of those vehicles were valued under $2,000, which leads to the assumption that most of those vehicles were not the target of criminal works.

In summary, based on the profile of 10,000 vehicles that “vanished” in the 2015/16 year, the NMVTRC’s model suggests that they were possibly disposed according to the following:

Although authorities are putting measures in place to curb profit motivated vehicle theft, the most recent statistics show that it is still on the rise. If you really value your vehicle then you should be looking at other methods to assist with security and speedy recovery. Click here to see what you can achieve.