Stolen automobiles belonging to 2 Premier League footballers are amongst a haul of autos and elements price greater than £16 million which have been recovered by an Essex Police unit up to now this yr.
The Ferrari and Vary Rover Sport belong to 2 gamers who haven’t been named, however have greater than 100 worldwide caps between them.
The autos had been stolen in neighbouring counties however found in shipping containers resulting from be transported to Dubai from London Gateway Port in Thurrock, Essex Police’s stolen car intelligence unit (SVIU) mentioned.
In complete, 517 autos or elements had been recovered, with police saying thieves might have been hoping to be paid two or thrice greater than the UK worth, as soon as they despatched had been abroad.
One of many footballers got here to the workforce’s base to be reunited together with his automobile, with Computer Phil Pentelow, of SVIU, including: “He was genuinely grateful and brought aback by the lengths we had gone to.
“His automobile was clearly very pricey to him, and he was very impressed with the service he’d had from the police.
“Though he performs for one in every of my workforce’s greatest rivals, he was a pleasant man and all the way down to earth. It was good to assist him.”
SVIU mentioned automobile thieves may look to rapidly promote on stolen autos – even for considerably beneath the market worth – strip it for elements, or ship both the entire car or elements to the Center East and Africa.
Thieves or handlers of stolen autos may use false or cloned identities to promote them on to unsuspecting members of the general public in the UK. They will also be handed on to different criminals.
This summer time, gangs behind such thefts had been focused in Operation Ignition, involving the SVIU, roads policing and investigators.
All the pieces from household saloons to supercars have been returned to lots of of victims, police mentioned.
Computer Paul Gerrish mentioned: “Each stolen automobile is necessary to us and we work as laborious as we are able to to get them again to their house owners.
“Once you cellphone somebody up and inform them we’ve obtained their automobile with their youngsters’ automobile seats and the pushchair in the again, or different private objects, it’s vastly satisfying.
“We’re making a hostile setting for automobile thieves. We all know what to search for and we all know how and the place they function.”
Producers together with Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, BMW and Mercedes have additionally supplied the unit with assistance on learn how to enhance car safety.
Computer Pentelow urged drivers to double lock and examine their autos as a result of he mentioned persons are nonetheless creating dangers by leaving their automobiles unlocked.
The police additionally advocate utilizing a steering-wheel lock and taking a look at movies on-line to be taught in regards to the vulnerabilities of their make and mannequin. The Secured by Design web site additionally recommends security gadgets.
