RAC says car contents targeted by thieves

Car insurers the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) revealed yesterday that thieves were increasingly targeting car contents as well as the vehicles themselves.

RAC spokesperson Liz Kennett said: “Cars now have sophisticated alarms and immobilisers so these days it’s actually really difficult to steal someone’s car unless you have got a pair of keys.

“Quite often it’s about the prestige cars, where people are stealing them to order, rather than your average family car. It’s much harder to steal the actual car itself which is why [thieves] are much more interested in the possessions inside the car.”

Ms Kennett added that increasing sophistication among the criminals had also been detected by the club: “More cars are now being stolen by thieves getting the keys before hand. They are actually stealing them to order.”

However, she added that “theft from vehicles probably won’t drive up car insurance premiums because people don’t claim for the items. They would only claim for the damage to the vehicle for example if the window had been smashed.”

Statistics from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau from 2006 show that a total of 36,000 uninsured claims were reported – a reduction of almost five per cent on the previous year.

Tags: Business Finance, car insurers, alarms, previous year, uninsured claims, Automobile, car contents