Scourge of the van thieves

Police seemingly powerless to combat epidemic levels of theft from commercial vehicles.

Life is tough for companies trying to make an honest living in the UK today. Working to complete hard won contracts far from home and office is challenging enough, but after your staff have been booked into a conveniently located motel, all plans for an early start might just disappear – along with your equipment.

Being faced with damaged vans and loss of valuable tools and equipment can be devastating or even terminal for a company.

The morning the pictures below were taken, the hotel Night Desk Manager had witnessed thieves breaking into FOUR vehicles in total. They followed procedure and called the police who simply gave them a crime number. No wonder fleet insurance is sky high!

The total cost to companies in lost working hours, administration, vehicle repairs, replacement of equipment and higher insurances must be astronomical, and yet the police seem powerless to do anything.

The thieves are so confident in not getting caught that in this instance they brazenly used heavy equipment, first to break through the car park security fencing and then proceeded to smash and cut their way into multiple vehicles, emptying them of their contents, all under the eyes of a hotel staff member and CCTV cameras. The police response to simply issue crime number and leave it to the victims and insurance companies to sort out is madness…

We need your help

There is currently an online petition which has our full backing at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231177 calling on the Government to consider what more can be done to tackle this problem, whether it be introducing new legislation, additional sentencing guidelines or regulations on the reselling of tools, but something needs to be done. Please sign and show your support!