Melbourne’s top suburbs for car theft claims... THE TOP SUBURBS FOR CAR THEFT Epping Preston Brunswick Reservoir Thomastown Werribee Dandenong St Albans Northcote CAR thieves favour the northern suburbs, according to insurance claims made for stolen vehicles in Melbourne. But many make it easy for the crooks: a quarter admitted leaving the vehicles unlocked. According to figures from Australia’s biggest car insurer AAMI, the top five suburbs for car theft claims in 2013-14 were in the north: Epping, Preston, Brunswick, Reservoir, and Thomastown. Disturbingly, almost half of all Victorian drivers surveyed by AAMI said they kept their car keys in a visible or easily accessible place at home. The survey also revealed that 85 per cent of drivers left their car unlocked in the garage at home; 55 per cent did the same at the service station or parked outside their home; 16 per cent left it unlocked at work; and 13 per cent did so while shopping at the supermarket. AAMI spokesman Reuben Aitchison said drivers were often their own worst enemies. “Most car thefts occur from at or around the home, and we seem to go out of our way to make it easy for thieves,” Mr Aitchison said. The executive director of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council, Ray Carroll, confirmed the AAMI findings that most cars were now stolen from the home or close to home. “The immobilisation rate in the Victorian fleet is around 75 per cent, so increasingly thieves who want to steal a later model car have to gain access to the transponder key in order to steal the car,” he said. “We are seeing more and more instances of home burglary in order to steal keys, then the car.” Mr Carroll said there were often differences between the number of thefts leading to an insurance claim compared with thefts reported to police. “This is because an estimated 40 per cent of vehicle thefts do not actually result in an insurance claim,” he said. Victoria Police spokeswoman Julie-Anne Newman said there were simple measures drivers could take to deter car thieves. “We find that thieves often go after older-model cars with less sophisticated security features, looking particularly for unlocked cars, or those with valuables left inside,” Acting Sergeant Newman said. heraldsun.au/news/law-order/melbournes-top-suburbs-for-car-theft-claims/story-fni0fee2-1226977092195
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 07:13:27 +0000
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