Vicious Cycle Of Theft As Rebirth Control Fails
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday July 6, 2001
Professional gangs account for more than half of a $1 billion a year bill.
Part of their "industry" supplies stolen panels to the insurance companies' repairers. By Bob Jennings.
It has been suspected for months, but now it's official. Government and industry attempts to stamp out professional car theft have failed.
The national bill for car theft has reached $1 billion a year and, for the first time, the activities of full-time car criminals have overtaken those of opportunistic "joy-riders" in the financial cost to the community.
Despite numerous improved security measures, car "rebirthing" continues unabated; car crooks are finding new loopholes as fast as others close.
As the country's biggest insurer, NRMA Insurance, points to increased car theft by professional gangs, repair industry sources claim that insurance companies should share some of the blame.
"The insurance companies are basically screwing the profit margins of smash repairers and expecting more for less money," said one Sydney smash repairer who did not wish to be named.
"This basically encourages unscrupulous smash repairers to improve their profit margins by repairing cars with stolen parts. Some [repairers] quite simply wouldn't make a profit of it wasn't for stolen parts."
An NRMA spokeperson told Drive: "We refute those claims. Most people we work with run very profitable businesses. We're even helping them become more profitable through our small business program with TAFE.
"We audit our recommended smash repairers and have a strong business relationship. We work with more than half the smash repairers in NSW and 93 per cent of cars are repaired with brand new parts."
According to the NRMA, highly organised and sophisticated operations run by professional thieves have contributed to Australia having one of the highest car theft rates in the world.
NRMA Insurance's Theft Control Manager, Jenny Davidson, said that last year in NSW and the ACT professional car thieves accounted for more than 50 per cent of theft insurance costs.
"The various moves intended to put a stop to the professional rackets aren't working," she told Drive. "They led to a downturn in professional theft at the end of 1998 and 1999 ... but the upward trend in professional theft evident before then has now returned."
She said some vehicles stolen by professional thieves were rebirthed, that is, given a new identity by using false identification numbers, being re-registered, and then sold to unsuspecting buyers.
Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) and engine numbers were replaced with false identifiers and thieves "mixed and matched" parts to make it harder to identify the vehicle. Some vehicles were stripped or completely broken down for parts.
The cars that disappear are not the old, easy-to-steal clunkers favoured by joy-riders. Rather, the professional thieves go for a varied mix of vehicles including high-performance and luxury cars and four-wheel-drives.
The common targets, Davidson said, included the German prestige trio, BMW, Mercedes and Audi, the high-performance Subaru WRX and HSV Holden and, in particular among 4WDs, Toyota's LandCruiser and RAV4.
But, she said, professional thieves did not confine themselves the high end of the market. Standard family sedans such as Holden Commodores were also regularly rebirthed.
Expensive high-performance cars represented a large part of the dollar value of stolen vehicles, but the majority of cars stolen were still pre-1992 models lacking electronic engine immobilisers.
"Adequate security such as an immobiliser will stop opportunistic thefts of these earlier model vehicles."
However, she revealed that the VT model Commodore was extremely popular with professional thieves - 90 per cent of those stolen in NSW were not recovered.
There was no guaranteed way to avoid purchasing a rebirthed car but licensed motor dealers had provisions under their licences for compensation should this occur. When buying a car privately, it was a case of "let the buyer beware".
Recent moves to attempt to control rebirthing include the setting up a Written Off Vehicles Register (WOVR), administered by the Roads and Traffic Authority.
Insurers, dealers, dismantlers and others who decommission motor vehicles are now required to notify details to the WOVR. When a vehicle is added to the register, its registration is automatically cancelled.
But until this was nationally co-ordinated, professional thieves still could ply their trade, Davidson said. Initiatives such as a national wrecks register, component identification and counterfeit-proofing compliance plates would restrict the professionals' opportunities.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald