Huge security threat for Aussie homes

About 55,000 cars have been stolen from Australian homes in the past year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

It is an upward trend that has been occurring since 2020, along with the number of young people involved in home break-ins and motor vehicle theft.

ABS head of crime and justice statistics William Milne said 59 per cent of people said the incident happened at their home or someone else’s.

“Eighty-six per cent of households reported their motor vehicle theft to police, which was the highest police reporting rate of all crime types collected in the survey,” he said.

Car thefts in Australia had been on a downward long-term trend since 2001, but the number has been increasing since 2020.

Australian Institute of Criminology deputy director Rick Brown said manufacturers introduced methods to stop vehicles from being stolen, so thefts went down, but then offenders found new ways to steal cars.

“Cars are being stolen more than previously. The thing that has changed here is that in previous times car theft was inherently linked to security,” he said.

“This time around offenders have found a way to externally circumvent the security.

“It is likely more homes are being broken into for the keys and that is something we have seen in previous years — homes are broken into to steal keys.

“Cars are very hard to steal without keys.”

In 2001, electronic immobilisers were introduced, resulting in declines in motor vehicle thefts until the past few years when the number of thefts rose 15 per cent.

In the past two years, the number of young offenders involved in car thefts and unlawful entry with intent also increased.

Mr Brown said most of this kind of crime was committed by young people in their teens and by their early 20s most grew out of it.

“Motor vehicle theft in the past has been described as a debut crime, the kind of crime young people get involved in their early offending, which leads to other types of criminal behaviour,” he said.

“In 2016/17, there were 1116 young offenders linked to motor vehicle thefts and in 2022/23 there were 1368 young offenders proceeded against for vehicle theft.

“We now have about the same number of young offenders involved in vehicle theft as 10 years ago.”

While the current circumstances or motivations for vehicle theft are unclear, Mr Brown said there were three possible explanations.

“For some young people, the motivation is temporary theft or joy-riding that ends in the vehicle being abandoned at some point,” he said.

“For others it is more professional, where a stolen vehicle is sold onto others or broken up for parts, and the third one is insurance fraud.

“With cost of living pressures, what’s not known is how much of the recent increase represents motor vehicle fraud because people can no longer afford them.”