A Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to police forces across the country revealed 14,529 incidents were recorded in London last year alone, equating to 40 vans a day being targeted in the capital.
Most of these cases related to theft from vans (11,532), while 2,997 cases of stolen vans were reported to the Met police force. Of the stolen vehicles, more than half (1,604) were not recovered, while 923 were recovered intact and 470 were recovered damaged.
With 25 police authorities responding to the FOI request for information, London was followed by West Yorkshire as a van theft hotspot. Here there were 902 thefts of
Van theft hotspots
1. Metropolitan Police (London) - 14,529 2. West Yorkshire Police - 1,973 3. Essex Police - 1,882 4. Leicestershire Constabulary - 1,237 5. Avon and Somerset - 876 6. South Wales Police - 751 7. Nottinghamshire Police - 746 8. Northamptonshire Police - 553 9. South Yorkshire Police - 533 10. Humberside Police - 336 11. Surrey Police - 327 12. Hertfordshire Constabulary - 262 13. Bedfordshire Police - 242 14. Lincolnshire Police - 228 15. North Yorkshire Police - 208
Comparatively, Dorset Police and Devon and Cornwall saw relatively low van crime numbers in 2023, with only 40 crimes recorded in each area.
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