Lawmakers are finally tackling keyless car theft
Editor Paul Barker welcomes the news that keyless car theft tech has finally been outlawed.
The ban of the tech that makes it easy to steal cars was some very welcome news for car owners last week. The Government’s decision to outlaw signal jammers, relays and other tools that override systems in cars with keyless entry is long overdue, and sees the authorities finally taking decisive action on a long-established problem.
The Metropolitan Police estimates well over half of thefts in London are completed via electronic nefariousness. Spin that out nationwide, and you’re approaching 75,000 cars gone in the year to March 2025.
For too long, somebody hacking your car’s keyless entry and making off with your pride and joy has just been a part of everyday life, so it’s way beyond time that lawmakers started to get a grip on the problem. Why should we have to accept that the car we work hard to pay for can just disappear?
Far from a victimless crime, car theft has a huge financial and emotional impact on victims, and these days we’re talking about serious criminals using advanced techniques, not local oiks with a coat hanger ‘borrowing’ your motor for a joyride.
So this needs to be step one of a concerted campaign to crack the car crime epidemic once and for all. Thatcham Research insurance expert Richard Billyeald was spot on last week when he said these well funded expert thieves will quickly adapt and find new ways to attack our cars. That means the law has to be agile enough to rapidly pivot to meet them head on, and be enforced to its full extent.
How it was ever legal to openly sell this kit – and why it’s taken so long to slam the loophole firmly shut – is somewhat baffling, although I’m not naive enough to presume it won’t still be perfectly easy for a determined crook to get hold of. They just need more than an Amazon Prime account now.
Car manufacturers are also working hard to combat the latest theft techniques, and that’s another area where over-the-air updates can benefit drivers, as the cat-and-mouse between good and bad plays out. However, more must be done to shut down this highly professional level of criminal enterprise. Let’s hope this ban is merely the beginning of a new era where the threat of theft is taken seriously, and the likelihood of your car vanishing in the night is dramatically reduced.
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