West Midlands tops UK car theft hotspots
Tue, 23 Sept 2025
Drivers in the West Midlands are most likely to fall victim to car thieves, a new Freedom of Information request has revealed.
Three years of data from each police force in the UK was analysed by a team at National Scrap Car. It showed that, of the 61,343 cars reported stolen in 2024, over 5400 of them were in the West Midlands.
The region was far ahead of Greater Manchester in second, with South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire closely-matched in third and fourth.
Essex was fifth, with 2495 vehicles stolen in 2024. Meanwhile, rounding out the top 10 was Northamptonshire – which, with 1229 vehicles stolen in 2024, suffered nearly 4200 fewer vehicle thefts than the West Midlands.
Remarkably, vehicle thefts in the West Midlands region alone were also more than double the number of stolen vehicles across the whole of Scotland.
Bottom of the list was Suffolk, with just 237 vehicles stolen, followed by Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.
2024’s overall total of 61,343 stolen vehicles was 6% down on the 2023 total, but still the third-highest figure recorded in the past decade – and more than double the number of vehicle thefts in 2015.
The analysis from National Scrap Car also looked at the number of vehicles seized by police forces. The West Midlands topped this total too, with 24,197 vehicle seizures in 2024.
Reasons for vehicle seizure include uninsured or unlicenced drivers at the top of the table, followed by road traffic collisions – and stolen vehicles.
65% of seized vehicles were subsequently returned to their owners – but surprisingly, the other third were either destroyed or sold at auction.
Overall, more than 21,000 vehicles were impounded by the police in 2024 after being discovered stolen. When a stolen vehicle is found, it is treated as abandoned and moved to a police pound.
Vehicles can be liable to release fees of up to £200 plus £20 a day in storage fees.
What is a reasonable amount of time for an insurance company to process a theft claim?
