Column: Levels of car crime are truly shocking and the problem needs tackling

In the year to September 2023, 126 car crimes were reported and closed without prosecution. This is the highest rate of recorded car thefts in the country, with an average of 54 cars being stolen per 1,000 people.

The area with the second highest rates is a wealthy part of Chelsea, where average house prices are over £1 million and the go to area if you want to spot high value luxury cars. Yet the stats show that car theft is less than half the Blyth rates with 26 vehicle crimes per 1,000 people.

Why are the criminals so focused on Blyth? The answer is the service station – which is now a honeypot for thieves. It’s location on the edge of a motorway and just before the county border of South Yorkshire, with a different police authority, provides the perfect speedy escape route alongside the knowledge that the likelihood of detection will be very low.

It is truly shocking, drivers are parking at the service station totally unaware of the high risk of theft. But even worse, it’s also impacting on the residents of Blyth and the surrounding areas, where car insurance rates are being hiked to cover the risk and bear the costs.

The advice that I have received from the British Insurers Brokers’ Association confirms that car-based crime rates are usually collected by postcode and this data will be factored into their quotes.

Car insurance prices have increased on average by 25 per cent since 2022 and whilst we have all felt the strain, I have no doubt that Blyth residents will be facing even higher costs.

For such a high number of cars to be driven off from a single site, there are clearly security issues at the service station and I am writing to Moto requesting that they urgently tackle this problem.

This is reputational for them.