Car theft ‘decriminalised’ as three-quarters of cases go unsolved

“Enough is enough” – that’s the response to new data from the House of Commons Library which reveals that three-quarters of car theft cases go unsolved in England and Wales.

Commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, the findings show that of the almost 122,000 cases of car theft reported in England and Wales between April 2024 and March 2025, as many as 92,958 resulted in a suspect failing to be identified. 

Furthermore, just over two per cent of cases (2,831) resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed, with the remainder either left unsolved due to problems such as insufficient evidence or an incomplete investigation.

Despite being the most highly-funded police force in the UK, it’s the Metropolitan Police that has the worst record on solving car crime; a shocking 88 per cent of Met cases involving car theft went unsolved. The capital’s other force, the City of London Police, also fared poorly, and was only able to solve 19 per cent of cases.

Cumbria Police performed the best in terms of solving car theft cases, with ‘only’ 40 per cent going unsolved in 2024/5. However, the number of thefts varies wildly across the country – it’s worth pointing out, for example, that the Welsh constabulary only had to wrestle with a comparatively low number of total cases at 299, in contrast to more than the 33,000 investigated by the Met.

Nevertheless, despite the total number of car thefts having dipped slightly from around 129,000 in 2023/24, 35 of the 44 forces across England and Wales reported a rate of unsolved cases of above 60 per cent. With this in mind, the Liberal Democrats have called for the founding of what it describes as a “specialist team” incorporated within the National Crime Agency which would “pool ANPR camera data, insurance records and intelligence from all police forces and border control to target organised car crime networks”.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson and MP for Cheltenham, Max Wilkinson, said: “Time and time again victims of crime are left without the support they need. It's a disgrace and communities deserve so much better. The previous Conservative government betrayed our communities with years of self-defeating cuts to our police forces – and now the current Labour Government must not turn a blind eye to this epidemic.”

A Home Office spokesperson responded to the Lib Dems’ calls, stating: “This Government and the police are taking decisive action to change that – from introducing new laws to ban electronic devices used to steal vehicles, to training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.”

Auto Express has approached the Metropolitan Police for comment, but is yet to receive a response.

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