These are the UK’s car crime hotspots

These are the areas your car is most likely to get stolen (Photo: Shutterstock)These are the areas your car is most likely to get stolen (Photo: Shutterstock)
These are the areas your car is most likely to get stolen (Photo: Shutterstock)

There are various ways you can keep your car safe, but one thing you can’t control as easily is where you live.

These are the car crime hotspots from across the UK, in which your car is most likely to be in danger.

The data

An FOI request from Choose My Car revealed the UK towns and cities with the most car crimes.

The car crimes are defined as one of the following three crimes:

Theft from a vehicleTheft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicleInterfering with a motor vehicle

Instead of just looking at where the most overall car crimes were committed in the UK, Choose My Car also factored in those figures in relation to the number of vehicles on the road, which changes the data completely.

So while Birmingham has 17,758 combined offences, Manchester actually has the highest rate of offences as for every 1,000 registered vehicles, 50.66 were targeted by criminals.

The most dangerous areas for cars

These are the UK towns and cities outside of London that have the most car crime (per 1,000 vehicles):

Manchester, with 9,037 total number of car crimes and overall score of 50.66Nottingham, with 3,314 total number of car crimes and overall score of 29.51Bradford, with 6,487 total number of car crimes and overall score of 27.59Wolverhampton, with 3,440 total number of car crimes and overall score of 27.07Northampton, with 3,464 total number of car crimes and overall score of 25.97

Safest areas

In comparison to areas with the highest numbers of car crimes, the areas with the lowest number of vehicle crimes are staggeringly low.

These are the areas where your car is safest:

Luton, with 395 total number of car crimes and overall score of 4.15Plymouth, with 1,043 total number of car crimes and overall score of 7.77Belfast, with 1,380 total number of car crimes and overall score of 8.93Stoke-on-Trent, with 1,414 total number of car crimes and overall score of 10.54Portsmouth, with 1,786 total number of car crimes and overall score of 14.01

How to keep your car safe from thieves

If you’re concerned about your car being a target from thieves, this is some advice from RAC about how to keep it safe:

Don’t just rely on your key fob to lock your car - make sure your car is locked properly before leaving it, as thieves can use a jammer to intercept the signal between the fob and the car, meaning the locking mechanism isn’t activated and the car will remain unlockedChoose your parking spot carefully, like one that it well-lit, open to public view or even covered by CCTV as these will deter thieves from going after your car, since they’ll be more worried about being caughtHide any belongings in the car, like any jackets, bags, sat-navs or money in the car, as this will make it a tempting targetThink about adding a car alarm, immobiliser or tracking device, which can help recover your car if it has been stolenDon’t leave your car running, like if you’re trying to warm it up on a cold morning while you’re in the house, as this gives thieves the opportune moment to steal itBeen seen to be secure - like using a lock for your steering wheel, pedals or gear stick. Thieves are opportunistic and might pass on a car they think might be too much hassle