Range Rover Sport remains most stolen vehicle in 2020

Global Telemetrics reveals 2020 was a busy year for vehicle theft recovery

The Range Rover Sport remains the most stolen vehicle in 2020 according to the latest figures from leading vehicle tracking experts, Global Telemetrics.

The latest figures relating to Global Telemetrics UK-wide vehicle recovery data makes for disheartening reading for Range Rover owners with the Range Rover Sport and its sister models, Vogue and Land Rover Discovery, consistently filling the top spots in the annual report for the third year in a row.

2020 Top 10 Most Stolen
Completing the top 10 in 2020 is the car thief’s favourite, the Ford Transit (seemingly the ever present ‘No tools left in this vehicle overnight’ sign fails to deter thieves), The BMW X5 and X6, Mercedes S-Class, Jaguar F-Type, Audi Q7 and the Fiat Ducato motorhome.

Vehicle theft hotspots
The geographic spread of car theft remains nationwide but the latest Global Telemetrics data highlights key hotspots such London, Kent, Essex, West Midlands and Greater Manchester where vehicle theft posed a higher than average threat for owners of prestige vehicles.

Theft methods
Global Telemetrics – the brand behind the market-leading D-iD™ smartphone vehicle tracking technology, the first tracking system of its kind to identify the vehicle owner’s smartphone as a tagging system – also shared details on how thieves are managing to make off with people’s pride and joy, highlighting how keyless entry is causing the biggest headache for car owners.

Gavin Hennessy, Operations Manager at Global Telemetrics said: “So many still do not realise that a thief needs only a few minutes to capture the signal emitted from keyless entry ‘keys’ or to clone your key, nor do they realise that it can be done from outside the property without having to physically handle the keys. Attacks of this kind are becoming increasingly popular as car thieves, particularly amongst organised crime where cars are stolen to order, utilise advanced technology to steal cars within seconds. When you consider this can be prevented with the use of a faraday bag, which blocks the key’s signal transmission to outside sources, it’s hard to believe that keyless theft continues to be such an ongoing issue.”

Aside from keyless entry the latest data also shows that burglary and vehicle hijacking are the other preferred method for criminals. Gavin added: “It’s easy to throw your keys onto the hallway side table, hang them in the kitchen or even leave them in the door at night, but these are also the first places thieves look. Consider finding a less obvious hiding place to avoid becoming a victim of car theft.”

Gavin Hennessy concluded by saying: “Our numbers only reflect those thefts that have been recovered by our team and partnerships with police forces across the country. The only reason we are able to recover each vehicle is simply because they have a tracker fitted. This means that we can follow the journey of the car, often capturing the thieves within minutes of the theft taking place. Whilst we can’t stop thieves from following a life of crime, we can work with our customers to empower their vehicle security solutions by providing the best possible, industry-approved tracking provisions. We shall also continue to work with anti-crime organisations to help them in their quest to reduce vehicle thefts, and, in the long-term, share our findings with vehicle manufacturers to help improve security solutions as the point of product development and manufacturing.”

To find out more about Global Telemetrics’s vehicle tracking options and how they can empower your security please visit www.globaltelemetrics.com or 0800 279 6401.

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The year in numbers – Global Telemetrics theft recovery highlights
Top 10 most stolen
Range Rover Sport
Range Rover Vogue
Landrover Discovery
Fiat Ducato
Ford Transit
BMW X5
BMW X6
Mercedes S Class
Jaguar F-Type
Audi Q7

Top 5 most expensive vehicles recovered
McLaren P1 – £1,800,000
Rolls Royce Ghost – £280,000
Range Rover SVR Autobiography – £195,000
Audi R8 V10 – £140,000
Mercedes G63 AMG – £139,000

Global Telemetrics’s figures also demonstrate that vehicle tracking is not exclusively for high value vehicles. The lowest value vehicle recovered in 2020 – a Kawasaki KLF 300 – is valued at just £3,000.

Total value of vehicles recovered by Global Telemetrics in 2020 – £13million