THIS is the shocking moment cops seized £1million worth of stolen supercars – including Ferraris and Bentleys.
An Essex-based specialist police unit has recently intensified its efforts to combat criminal organisations that specialise in stealing high-end luxury and sports cars.
This is the shocking moment cops seized £1million worth of stolen supercars – including Ferraris and BentleysEssex Police
In the last few months, cops have located and recovered several Ferraris and Aston MartinsEssex Police
This comes after they returned a load of luxury motors to their owners, including a Rolls Royce, a Bentley Bentayga and several Range Rovers.
Specialist officer PC Paul Gerrish told the Mail: “Our work is dedicated to the disruption of organised criminal gangs and we make sure car thieves are never comfortable in Essex.
“We aim to make this a hostile county for car thieves to operate in.
“Our work stretches beyond recovering individual stolen cars and encompasses the wider network of criminality behind each theft.
“Every year, we track down more stolen vehicles, and as we do, we build up a bigger and better intelligence picture.”
In the last few months, cops have located and recovered several Ferraris and Aston Martins – and they also managed to return a Rolls Royce Cullinan worth £360,000.
Despite having just three officers — husband and wife duo Hannah and PC Paul Gerrish, together with PC Phil Pentelow — the unit has already recovered £12million in stolen cars this year and has dismantled 15 chop shops.
Gerrish revealed that they had intercepted almost 50 shipping containers full of stolen vehicles and parts ready to leave the UK in the last six months.
Many criminals employ relay theft to steal vehicles without actually causing any damage to the car.
Although brands such as Land Rover and Mercedes feature ever-increasingly sophisticated security systems, crooks are using technology to stay ahead of the curve.
Criminals usually buy a device online for around £1,300 that allows them to simply drive cars away in less than 90 seconds.
Ken Munro of Pen Test Partners, a security firm, said: “I think they underestimated the ability of technologists to weaponise these attacks.
“Typically, each vehicle brand will have a different flavour network on the car. They are not massively different, but a little, with different components on the cars that talk in slightly different ways.
“So each attack has to be customised to the particular vehicle. What we are seeing is that someone finds a weakness in x brand and x vehicle, recognised it, ‘productised’ it and then sold it.
“Then all of a sudden, you see a spike in thefts of a particular type of vehicle.”
This comes after drivers were warned which cars are most in danger of being stripped of their parts by opportunistic “cannibal” thieves.
Plus, Britain’s most stolen car was revealed and how gangs use keyless tech to steal motors worth £55k straight from your drive.
A chop-chop is where stolen cars are stripped of their parts so they can be soldEssex Police
Although brands such as Land Rover and Mercedes feature ever-increasingly sophisticated security systems, crooks are using technology to stay ahead of the curveESSEX police Read More