Latest statistics released by the Crime Statistics Agency highlight the upwards trend in theft from a motor vehicle offences that have occurred across Victoria in the past five years.
In the year ending 31 December 2015, there were 54,939 steal from a motor vehicle offences recorded by Victoria Police. This represents an increase of 22.6% over the five years from January 2011. As at 18 January 2016, 89.2% of the 54,939 offences for steal from a motor vehicle remained unsolved.
The North West Metro police region recorded the highest number of steal from a motor vehicle offences, making up 43.6% of all offences across Victoria. The Local Government Areas within this region with the highest number of offences were Brimbank, Moreland, Hume, Darebin and Melbourne.
When population figures are taken into account, Port Phillip had the highest rate of steal from a motor vehicle offences across Victoria with 1,889.5 offences per 100,000 people, followed by Yarra (1,876.5), Melbourne (1,671.1) and Maribyrnong (1,622.4).
The most common points of entry into a vehicle were through a car door or a window. In addition, 7,109 offences involved a window being smashed and 2,420 involved a lock being forced open.
The item of property most frequently stolen from vehicles was cash or documents followed by personal property, number plates and tools.
In the past five years the number of tools that have been stolen from a vehicle has increased by 39.2% from 6,957 in 2011 to 9,685 in 2015. In the past year there has also been an increase of 18.3% (2,181 offences) in the number of number plates stolen.
There were 5,010 alleged offender incidents in the year ending December 2015, of which approximately 90% were male. 1 in 4 incidents involved an alleged offender between 15 and 19 years of age.
More information on Steal from motor vehicle offences can be found here, in this quarter's spotlight.