Alan Campbell, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of
State and Minister for Crime Reduction, visited the ACPO Vehicle
Crime Intelligence Service's (AVCIS) headquarters, located near
Coventry, to demonstrate his support of its continued role in the
fight against vehicle-enabled crime.
Although car crime has more than halved in the last
ten years, a vehicle is stolen every three minutes in the UK and
around half of these are never recovered.* Often stolen to order by
organised criminals, they are shipped abroad or used to commit
other types of serious crimes.
AVCIS is a dedicated unit working to combat vehicle
crime at the source by removing the use of unlawfully obtained
transportation. The unit has been working to reduce the rate of
vehicle offences since its launch in 2006, organising operations
that have succeeded in recovering over 1,200 stolen vehicles, worth
in excess of £14 million.
Alan Campbell, said, "Vehicle crime has fallen by 65
per cent since 1995. This is a significant achievement that would
not have been possible without the work of AVCIS. The Government
supports AVCIS and the leading role it plays in tackling the
constantly evolving challenge of vehicle-enabled crime, which is
why we have increased our funding from £200,000 to £300,000."
"The UK has seen dramatic falls in vehicle crime over the last
ten years, but there is still work to be done. As cars have become
more difficult to steal, we have seen increases in burglaries
around the country specifically to obtain car keys and then the
car", said Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hooper, Head of AVCIS.
"The use of vehicles to enable criminal activity is an ongoing
challenge for the police service and our work to combat this would
not be possible without our partners, police forces, and above all,
funding. This contribution will ensure that we can continue to
drive down vehicle-enabled crime, which in turn will have a
positive impact on crime rates overall."