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Car thefts increase in Victoria | report

There has been a recent spate of car thefts in metropolitan and regional Victoria.

Car thefts are soaring in Victoria, with crime gangs and bored jobless youths blamed for rises of up to 24 per cent in a year in some areas.

New figures put Victoria ahead of New South Wales for the first time in the total number of vehicle thefts.

Older Holden Commodores remain the most frequently stolen cars and 15-year-old Nissan Pulsars are also a common target — both lack the sophisticated security systems in almost all 2016 models.

The National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council statistics showed Victoria had a 5.6 per cent increase in the year to October, up to 14,381 from 13,620.

In the Greater Dandenong area, the crime has surged 24.4 per cent in 12 months. Members of a local street gang have proven to be prolific car thieves. The theft of cars by organised crime gangs is also a factor throughout Melbourne.

Some cars, including prestigious European makes, are being stripped and exported for huge profits.

The percentage leap in Victoria was well ahead of New South Wales (0.9 per cent).

NMVTRC executive director Ray Carroll said: "The rise is largely driven by teenagers and young men stealing for hooning or for the commission of other crimes."

Mr Carroll said the council was concerned about the fast-rising Victorian total, with the state now exceeding NSW for the first time since his organisation began collecting data.

Some believe Victoria Police's new policy on car pursuits by officers to be a factor, but Mr Carroll said the trend had been running for some time before the controversial "don't chase" order emerged.

He believed there was a correlation between areas of high car theft and soaring youth unemployment, as youths stole cars to relieve boredom or commit other offences.

Commodores remained the most frequently stolen nameplate

The Hume municipality, based around Broadmeadows in the northern suburbs, is where most car thefts occur in Melbourne.

Despite recording a 6.5 per cent decline in the year to ­October, its total of 766 put it in front of Brimbank on 684 and Greater Geelong on 651.

The highest percentage increases in Victoria were Greater Dandenong, Melbourne (19 per cent) and Greater Geelong (18.8 per cent).

Across Australia, Commodores remained the most frequently stolen nameplate. Among individual models, the Nissan Pulsar N15 outstrips the long-running Holden.

Some 521 N15s, made between 1995 and 2000, were stolen in the past year, up from 406 in the previous 12 months.

That put it well ahead of the 2006-2013 VE Commodore (215), the 1997-2000 VT Commodore (212), and the 1990-1995 Pulsar N14 (157).

Fridays between 4pm and 8pm were the most common time for car thefts nationwide.

Usually thieves target older cars for ease of break-in, but there are now fears that modern vehicles are at increasing risk owing to new hi-tech devices that can disable even state-of-the-art security systems.

In the Geelong region alone last weekend, thieves made off with 15 vehicles. One car was set alight and others were used to bait police. Earlier this year it was revealed teenagers were behind a soaring number of car thefts in that city.

Commenting on the weekend's theft spree, Geelong police Sergeant Anthony Henderson said thieves had forced their way into homes and garages in Corio, Lara, South Geelong, Whittington and Armstrong Creek. One vehicle, a Subaru, had been recovered by yesterday evening.

"There's been a spate of car thefts where cars have been accessed in driveways after they've got through internal garage doors," he said.