Barnet police have made a detailed report on trends in motor vehicle crime in the borough available to us to enable you to help keep your vehicle and the vehicles of your members safe.

There are two types of motor vehicle crime, theft of motor vehicles and theft from motor vehicles. We will deal with each in turn giving you an indication of the problems and possible solutions. The rising trend in vehicle crime is expected to continue through the summer and we hope this information will help you to spread the word and reverse the trend. To give you an idea of the size of the problem Barnet police record 470-500 car crimes a month.

THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLES

Over half the vehicles stolen were over ten years old but only 12% were less than five years old, of the older vehicles Fords were at the greatest risk.

Hot spots where peak numbers of thefts occur are Burnt Oak, Grahame Park Estate, East Barnet, Childs Hill and Hendon with lesser but significant problems in West Hendon, Colney Hatch Lane, Finchley Central and East Finchley. In all areas a mixture of cars and vans are stolen as well as mopeds, scooters and motorcycles but in Childs Hill there is a variation from the norm with mopeds, scooters and motorcycles being much more at risk in the Cricklewood trading estate.  

Cars are often stolen in the course of residential burglaries, in the last year 247 cars were stolen in the course of 182 burglaries, including 61 high value cars which may have been stolen to order, very few of these were recovered. The main areas for this type of crime were Childs Hill (NW 2), Hampstead Garden Suburb (NW 11), Finchley (N 3) and Edgware (HA 8).

The number of cars stolen as a result of letterbox burglaries has greatly reduced, due to repeated warnings in the press and by Ringmaster messages, but still represents 18% of all cars stolen. Peak times for this offence are 02.00 to 05.00 and are spread throughout the week and across the borough.

Many vehicles are taken by joy riders and are recovered locally, often very close to where they have been stolen. Others are found in adjacent boroughs and very few are taken on long journeys. A worrying feature is that 83 vehicles were recovered in the last year intact with no sign of forced entry or damage, which indicates that the vehicles were not locked when stolen.

Security has improved greatly in newer cars but to deter theft fit alarms or crook locks, change worn locks on older cars or fit additional locks. Always lock your car, even if you keep it in a garage, and ensure the garage itself is locked. Keep keys safe; do not leave them in the hall on a table where they might be ‘fished’ out of the letterbox. Take keys upstairs with you, burglars are opportunist, and if they cannot find a key downstairs they cannot be tempted.

Above all remember the mantra, LOCK IT OR LOSE IT.

 
THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLES

In this type of crime vehicles of all ages are attacked, the presence of an alarm or other improved security may prevent a vehicle being stolen but it can still be easily entered, especially if valuables are left in sight. The three most common methods of entry are breaking a window, levering open a door or drilling out a lock. Windows left slightly ajar in warmer weather may also be forced down.

Typical items stolen are spare wheels (mainly from 4 x 4’s), stereos together with CD’s and cassettes, mobile ‘phones, money, computer equipment, cameras, bags, documents, clothing and jewellery. Tools are often removed from the boot and various vehicle parts can be removed including license plates. Autoglass advise that the cost of items lost in a typical robbery has risen over the last year from £329 to £458. Are we collectively becoming more careless or lazy?

There is no pattern to these types of robbery except that, if you leave something in sight, you can expect to lose it! If you have an estate car keep the load cover closed. Keep contents of vans, especially power tools out of sight, lock them in a tool box or cover them. Once again, as with thefts of vehicles, there is evidence that some vehicles are left unlocked when burgled. The answer is simple, LOCK IT IN THE BOOT OR LOSE IT.

There are several areas in the borough where the risk of this type of crime is significantly higher and greater vigilance will be repaid, these are:

BRENT CROSS
The shopping centre car parks and other nearby car parks including Tesco and the leisure centre plus Tilling Road and Claremont Road. Thefts are primarily during the day and are spread throughout the week but lowest on Saturday and Sunday when the car parks are busiest.

HENDON
Especially Brent Street, Church Road, Finchley Lane, Second Avenue and Victoria Road. The great majority of thefts are during the daytime, particularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but there are some overnight thefts.

GRAHAME PARK ESTATE
Both on the roads and in local car parks, both daytime and overnight, with a notable peak on Sundays.

EAST BARNET
Especially Victoria Road, Park Road, Edward Road and Eton Avenue, both daytime and overnight, peaking on Friday.

GARAGE ALARMS
Boroughwatch stock an inexpensive battery operated garage alarm which will detect movement through doors and windows, it has a 130 decibel siren, a keypad on/off function with a time delay adjustment and a low battery indicator. Supplied with batteries and door/window mounting bracket and strap. Price £10-85 including post and packing. They may be ordered from the Boroughwatch office address at the head of this newsletter, make cheques out to Barnet Boroughwatch.