Black Country home invasion victims assured vehicle crime 'top priority' as PCC reveals £1.8m worth of cars recovered

The Black Country has been a hot spot for home invasions by burglars stealing car keys in recent years with hundreds of families becoming victims of crime. Due to newer cars being increasingly hard to steal thieves have resorted to burgling homes for keys, putting owners at increased risk.

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster revealed £1.8m worth of vehicles had been recovered since the office funded West Midlands Police to dedicate resources to vehicle crime through Operation Vantor.

Vehicle crime in the West Midlands increased 35 per cent between 2021 and 2023 but the latest Office for National Statistics figures revealed a 10 per cent fall in car crime in the county, the first decrease in years.

Ruthless criminals targeted family homes to steal car keys at an alarming rate, with one gang from Walsall raiding 30 homes in leafy suburbs in Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell, in 2022 and 2023.

One victim of the gang told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "We have never felt safe in our home again. Knowing our children were asleep upstairs when they entered our home made everything so much worse. What right do they have to break into our home and steal our property."

Ringleader of one gang, Rio Halls, 19, of Clare Road, Walsall, was jailed last year for five years but still faces a raft of charges for similar crimes this year. The sheer regularity of the car thefts demonstrates there is a highly organised network of organised criminals who either chop cars up for parts or smuggle them out the country for sale. 

A recovered £140,000 Porsche 911 GT3 on display with PCC Foster yesterday demonstrated car theft has national and international aspects which complicate detection and prosecution.

The Porsche had been stolen in Cheshire during a home invasion and had been driven to Birmingham where it was waiting to be delivered to a Cypriot crime syndicate before West Midlands Police swooped on its location.

Speaking in a recovery yard in Witton, Birmingham, where more than a £1m stolen cars, including a Lamborghini, Range Rovers, BMWs and Golf GTIs, PCC Foster recognised home invasions were the sharp end of car crime. 

He said: "Home invasions to steal car keys is a serious problem. One stolen car is one too many. These gangs are linked to organised crime and funding West Midlands Police to dedicate resources to combat car crime has helped recover £1.8m worth of cars since we started. 

"The police are using intelligence and technology to recover vehicles like this Porsche 911, since the operation started last year more than 200 vehicles have been recovered.

"In January during a 16 day operation more than £520,000 worth of vehicles were recovered when 27 vehicles. Some were returned to their owners and where they had already claimed on the insurance they were returned to the insurance companies to help recover the costs they incurred."

He added: "Vehicle crime has been a considerable challenge in recent times, which is why I have been working with West Midlands Police to combat this crime. We are committed to constant and unremitting action concerning car crime, we doing all we can to combat this type of crime. We want to keep families, businesses and communities in the Black Country and West Midlands protected from this crime."

He added: "These criminals are sophisticated and part of organised crime groups, this is why this project is so important because it is disrupting these networks."

Insurance premiums have been rising year on year as a result of car crime with some vehicles, such as Range Rovers, becoming too expensive to insure for some owners who then find it impossible to sell the cars due to potential buyers being put off by prices exceeding £2,000 a year for comprehensive cover. 

The PCC and West Midlands Police is working with the DVLA as part of its project. So called "chop shops" where vehicles are stripped for parts have also become targets for police raids in recent years.

The PCC has given "a five figure investment" to West Midlands Police to the Roads Crime Team so it can dedicate resources to combatting car crime.