Car Crime UK - Going Up Not Down?

ANALYSIS of official crime figures has led one industry expert to question the Government’s statistics.

Carl Brandrick, MD of Nice 1 Ltd, has been looking at the just published British Crime Survey figures, and comparing it to official Police Recorded Crime. He’s discovered big disparities – with a huge relevance to to the owners of the 30million+ licensed vehicles on UK roads.

British Crime Survey figures, he says, show there were 10.6 million crimes last year. Police data, however, puts this figure at 4.7 million. Why the huge difference? Simple: Police data shows recorded crime only.

‘When you consider that only 65 percent of house burglaries are reported (and, thus, recorded) – and just 45 percent of car crime is reported, you can see how concerned I am.’

"Indeed, the difference, he suggests, runs contrary to headlines claiming crime is going down. And there’s even more to it than just that", says the replacement vehicle insurance company boss.

A big car crime growth area is the theft of keys from houses. Which is reported by the Police as… house burglary…… and thus NOT included in car crime stats.

The former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith released the number of car key thefts in 2008. There were a hefty 18,600 of them. ‘When these numbers are factored into the car theft figures, it reverses the headline-grabbing -14 percent decrease in car theft, to -2 percent’ reveals Brandrick.

Looking at other factors too, it’s led him to state that ‘it is almost certain we are talking about a car crime increase, not a decrease.’

To read the full article click here

 Comments are welcome.

The Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

Car stolen in man's final hours

A cancer patient had his car stolen from his Birmingham home while his family members were at his side during his final few hours, police said.

Thieves entered Scott Wright's home and took the car keys and his mother's handbag as the family gathered at his bedside on Wednesday night.

Mr Wright, 26, of Holliday Road, in Erdington, died the next morning.
To read the full story click here

NICE 1! - Theft Protect Comes To Aid Of Expectant Midlands Mum

Check out this article on our sister site by clicking here

"CASH FOR CRASH" - TOP 20 HOTSPOTS

See the latest article on Cash For Crash in the UK. Visit our sister site by clicking here

NICE 1 PRESS RELEASE VIA PR LOG

To view press release click here :-

http://www.prlog.org/10311862-car-crime-uk-going-up-not-down.html

Nice 1! - A USEFUL FREE RESOURCE TOOL FOR BROKERS

FREE ONLINE CAR SECURITY CHECK

The team at Nice 1, providers of Theft Protect Replacement Vehicle Insurance, are delighted to provide access to a great new resource for UK motorists that is totally FREE.

Type a postcode and registration number into this free online tool, confirm the vehicle make and model, and you are then presented with a security rating for that car and the location it is kept.

This solves the age old mystery for UK motorists – how to get free access to information about how safe from crime their vehicle is, or how safe the vehicle they are planning to buy is, according to the area where it’s parked in and the type of vehicle it is.

This unique tool also provides the ABI security ranking, and explains how that system rates male and female drivers according to age. Few people know that a female under 24 or a male under 30 will get discounts for driving vehicles between one and 20 ABI groups. Insurance will go up rapidly after ABI 20, and most insurers will decline above ABI 33. Females over 24 will get discounts for driving vehicles between one and 33 ABI and insurance will go up rapidly after ABI 33. Males over 30 will get discounts for driving vehicles between one and 33 ABI and insurance will go up rapidly after 33.

The security rating is an estimate based on government and industry vehicle crime data. The data is combined to take account of where the vehicle is kept overnight, the vehicle's theft desirability and manufactured security. Scores range from 'excellent' - nine stars or more - to 'extremely poor' - one star. An 'excellent' score has an approximate probability of less than 1-in-1000 chance of being stolen, broken into or vandalised over the year and 'extremely poor' has a greater than 1-in-10 chance."

The tool draws its data from the ABI and the Thatcham vehicle security site. Thatcham is the research and development unit owned by the UK insurance industry.

So, whether your customer is thinking of buying a new car, getting or renewing their car insurance, or simply want to find out how secure their car is, click the link below or to the right of the page.

Brokers should do this on behalf of the customer, as the link directs to an alternative insurance portal.

Click the back button once you're done to return to these pages.

With compliments & kind regards

The Theft Protect Team at Nice 1 Limited

CHECK CAR SECURITY NOW – CLICK THIS LINK

UK Crime 2008/09 - At A Glance - Part 1

Click the map for a larger view, then hit the back button to return here

"A PICTURE PAINTS A 1000 WORDS!"

The crime analysis team at Nice 1 Limited are delighted to be the first to present the "real picture" of car crime in the UK, compiled from the recently released Home Office crime figures.

In the first of the series published from the latest Nice 1 site at http://carcrimeuk.blogspot.com we look at car crime as it was recorded by the 43 police forces of England & Wales* for the 2008/09 financial year.

Previous articles from these pages and the other Nice 1 sites have commented on the disparity between the two sets of Home Office crime statistics that reflect an under reporting of all categories of crime. See previous posts for details.

A new series of articles examining the Home Office crime figures will be published from the new crime statistics site at http://carcrimeuk.blogspot.com Click the link to explore the new site and to sign up for updates as they are posted

The Nice 1 team, starting with Home Office source data, have amalgamated the correct population figures for each of the 376 local authority districts, and allocated the crime statistics to the post codes of the areas concerned. From this, we were able to produce, for the first time, a post code map of the UK highlighting the Car Crime hotspots.

This visual representation is unique in that it portrays the statitics more clearly. Please remember though, that this is the "best case" scenario, in light of the under reporting, and under allocation issues previously reported.

In the map above, the areas marked in red suffered significantly higher than average levels of car crime in 2008/09. Areas in amber were at best, in line with the national average. Areas in white encountered lower levels of car crime than average. The map should be read in line with the previous statistical reports, showing the number of incidents and the frequency of offences per 1000 head of population. (The Nice 1 Team do not believe this is the most accurate method for calculating frequency, and we are concluding our report that combines theft incidents with vehicles licensed on UK roads for the period, which is a more accurate representation).

Future visual crime mapping will include anlysis of key police recorded incidents including:-

• Burglary
• Violence against the person
• Robbery
• Other Theft Offences
• Fraud & Forgery
• Criminal Damage

The Nice 1 Team are happy to assist you, should you require further information about the extent and trends of crime in your area. To contact us, click the 'contact me' button, or see the contact details at the foot of the page.

Businesses involved in car insurance, motor sales, finance and security are welcome to contact us for more information on how our crime analysis can help you with your marketing efforts.

To sign up for updates as they appear on these pages, complete your details in the e mail link to the right of this article.

To view other articles with news content about crime in the uk, please visit our consumer site at http://theftprotect.blogspot.com/

The Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

*Scotland & Ireland are not included in the police source data