A car theft gang managed to steal a luxury Range Rover worth £183,000 from the owner’s driveway, just two days after he had driven it off the dealership lot. This incident occurred despite the owner supposedly being assured by the dealership that the vehicle was ‘unstealable’.
This theft is part of a series of similar crimes involving luxury vehicles. Criminal networks in the UK are known to steal cars on demand and promptly ship them to various destinations, such as Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.
John, a 45-year-old resident of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, had visited the dealership in Coventry on Friday, December 13, to finalize the paperwork for his limited edition Range Rover 2024 SV Edition One. This particular model is one of just 550 released in the UK.
The state-of-the-art vehicle included massage seats, a ‘4D’ tactile audio system which allows the seats to pulse in-time with music, and £10,000 graphite wheels.
John collected the car at approximately 3.30pm the following afternoon – and less than 60 hours later it had been taken by a ring of car thieves in what appears to be a highly targeted and sophisticated operation.
What made the theft even more shocking to John is that he claims a salesperson at the dealership told him the car was effectively ‘unstealable’ due to a new JLR security upgrade.
John said that he spoke to the dealership about having a Ghost Immobiliser fitted, a device which requires an owner to enter a unique code before the car becomes driveable – but was allegedly told that JLR’s latest security upgrade meant ‘no one’s taking this car’.
He said: ‘I felt safe with this knowledge, I had just paid £183,000 for a car made by JLR and the staff were confident that they had now made these cars safe and unstealable.’
But instead John’s worst nightmare came to pass when the high-end vehicle was swiped in the early hours of December 17, 2024.
A driver dropped off three men at the top of John’s street shortly before 1am. Two men walked directly to his house with the other one standing watch across the road.
It is not immediately clear what technique the thieves used to gain access to the vehicle but after gaining entry to the car one man sat in the driver’s seat while the other worked on it. The trio only took 15 minutes to gain control of the vehicle before driving off.
John, who works in the renewable energy industry, said he awoke at 3am on the morning of the theft to missed calls from the tracking company – only to see that his car was gone from his driveway.
He said: ‘We live in a croft, one way in, one way out, so it’s very quiet with no through traffic. I woke up at 3am and saw several missed calls from the tracking company, I looked out of the window and my car was gone.’
John called the tracking company but the tracker had been disabled by the thieves – and then called the police.
On checking his CCTV, he watched in horror as the three balaclava-clad men carried out the theft.
John said: ‘The “getaway driver” sped off when he dropped them off, so they were confident they were driving away in my car. It took them 15 minutes to open, start and drive away in my car. They were working away inside, knowing exactly what to do.’
A common tactic used by modern-day car thieves is ‘relay theft,’ in which they use a digital-scanner to capture the signal of a car key and fool the car into thinking it is nearby. Thieves only need to be within a few metres of a car key to capture the signal, even if it’s inside a home – but John says the thieves in this instance did not approach his property.
He added: ‘They did not come near to the house with a scanning device to get a key signal, whatever they did was more sophisticated than this, they didn’t need one. I’m told that there are 500 of these cars made today, the 2024 SV One Edition, and mine was car number 50 sold. The dealership have told me mine is the first one to be taken.’
Furious, John penned a letter of complaint to the JLR CEO Adrian Mardell on January 1 of this year. In it he wrote: ‘The theft of my vehicle demonstrates a catastrophic failure of the security systems advertised as state-of-the-art.
‘These features, heavily promoted by JLR, failed to prevent theft, even though JLR asserts publicly that: “JLR’s investment includes updates to the Body Control Module (BCM) which prevents thieves driving away a vehicle without a key.”
‘This statement is categorically contradicted by the circumstances of the theft, where the vehicle was stolen without a key.’
In response, on January 6, Jaguar Land Rover Client Relationship Centre said: ‘As a responsible manufacturer, we have implemented theft mitigation schemes to help reduce this risk; however, these measures cannot solely be relied upon.
‘Vehicle theft is a risk that all vehicle owners face, and we would not consider reviewing any claims of responsibility. Should you remain unhappy with our response, I can only suggest that you seek advice by an alternative dispute resolution service, such as The Motor Ombudsman.’
Asked about the car gangs that are flourishing in the UK, Iain McKinlay, of the Association of Auto Theft Investigators (IAATI), said: ‘In general, these operations resemble a loosely organised hierarchy, much like a drug syndication model.
‘At the top, there are organisers who make agreements on where vehicles will be sent. Below them are taskmasters who coordinate the sourcing of specific makes and models.
‘Finally, there are the thieves, who are often not directly tied to the organised crime groups (OCGs) but operate independently, working for whoever offers the best payment. These thieves function as opportunists, taking on jobs based on the potential reward.
‘This decentralised approach allows OCGs to maintain a level of detachment from the physical act of vehicle theft while ensuring a steady supply of stolen vehicles.
‘Nobody in these networks works for free—it’s essentially a “trickle-down economics” system in action.
‘Organisers enjoy the largest share of the profits, as they control the operation. Middlemen/handlers are paid well for their role in moving and processing vehicles.
‘Then thieves receive just enough to keep them motivated to steal again but not so much that they can stop working. They’re often out nightly, seeking their next payout.’
The main markets for stolen luxury vehicles are those with a high demand for affordable luxury goods, combined with lax customs controls and weak registration systems that making verifying vehicle ownership challenging, Mr McKinlay said.
In the Middle East that includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while Africa has also emerged as a huge booming market, with the wealthy in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Libya, and South Africa preferring UK-spec vehicles as they are of a higher quality than those sold locally.
In Eastern Europe Russia, Poland and Ukraine are common destinations for stolen luxury vehicles, with organised crime groups facilitating the movement of pilfered cars to other markets.
The loss of John’s vehicle comes amid recent research by the Liberal Democrats showing almost 25,000 vehicle thefts went unsolved within a three month period between April and June 2024 – leading to claims that it has become virtually ‘decriminalised’.
Lisa Smart, Liberal Democrat MP for Hazel Grove, called the figures ‘staggering’ and said that while the statistics applied to the period when the Conservatives were in power, Labour had not done enough to rectify the problem since coming to power.
‘These shocking figures will leave people wondering if car theft has been decriminalised in this country,’ Ms Smart said.
The analysis of Home Office figures revealed that on average 78.5% of all car thefts go unsolved – a total of 24,837 unrecovered vehicles.
The Metropolitan Police had the highest number of unsolved car thefts but South Yorkshire followed closely behind with 85% of theft going unsolved.
Essex, Wiltshire, Sussex and Hertfordshire also all reported that at least 80% of car thefts were unsolved in the quarter ending June 2024.
Warwickshire – the county in which John’s car was stolen – saw 280 car thefts investigated, with only 2.5% resulting in a charge, while 77.86% went unsolved.
Jaguar Land Rover has been under intense scrutiny over its security record in recent years, with the owner of a Land Rover in London resorting to chaining their car to a tree in order to avoid thieves using the cars keyless entry to steal them.
Social media users had fun with a photo showing the Land Rover parked on a quiet, leafy residential street with a bike chain looped around a nearby tree and attached to the back of the expensive car.
Meanwhile in 2023 Range Rover gained the dubious title of ‘Britain’s most stolen car’ as a percentage of thefts against the number of them on the road, after MailOnline analysis revealed it had three of the top five most stolen models in the UK.
DVLA data showed that Lexus RX was the most stolen car model in 2023, but the Velar, Sport and standard Range Rover models all made the top five with the brand’s Evoque placing sixth and the Land Rover Discovery in seventh.
The company has since taken steps to try and boost security standards and in 2024 put up £1 million to help the police catch car thieves.
JLR bosses denied reports that their cars were vulnerable to theft and said the money they were investing was to support police operations in theft hotspots, as well as to fund intelligence gathering.
According to JLR, only four in 1,000 new Range Rover Sports have been stolen since January 2022, and they say in December 2024 they had their lowest theft numbers across all brands since 2020.
The company also say they have invested £15 million to update the security of previous generation vehicles for their clients, including those out of warranty, now totaling 232,000 vehicles – and are now currently updating cars as far back as 2018 models.
However, owners have been complaining that insurers have been hiking their premiums dramatically, or even refusing cover.
Range Rover Velar owner Kirsten Lijeskic said in February 2024 that she had to declare her car off road after insurers quoted her an astronomical £890 a month premium.
Meanwhile Range Rover owner Mark Perring said he was quoted £14,000 for an annual insurance policy on his four-year-old car – and that the manufacturer will not cover him at all.
The IAATI’s Iain McKinlay, who is also the chair of the National Association of Stolen Vehicle Examiners, said vehicle owners could take steps to minimise the chances of their vehicle being taken.
He said: ‘Thieves will typically choose the easiest target. If your high value vehicle is stored securely, locked in the garage, immobilised with the alarm set, with a steering lock and pedal box fitted and the house alarm set, you’re probably the last person they will look at.
‘They will look for a softer target. Anything that increases the time effort or risk for a thief is a deterrent.
‘Anything that will make your vehicle appear more secure or more likely to be identified or traced is something for a thief must consider. e.g. glass etching with your registration number means a thief must remove all of them or risk the identification being revealed.
‘That would cost money and that impacts on profit. If they don’t then Risk v Reward comes into play.’
A spokesperson for JLR, said: ‘We understand how deeply distressing it is to become the victim of vehicle theft, which is driven by organised criminal groups.
‘JLR continues to invest in vehicle security and take significant action to tackle vehicle crime, including funding and collaborating with police to support investigations.
‘We would welcome the opportunity to investigate this case further, including reviewing any associated CCTV and accessing vehicle telematics data with client permission.’
