Federal Criminal Police Office publishes “Federal Vehicle Crime Report 2023
The number of car thefts in Germany continues to rise. This is the result of the ‘Bundeslagebild Kfz-Kriminalität 2023’ published today by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). According to the report, 15,924 cars were stolen last year. That is 9 percent more than in 2022.
The number of cars permanently lost to misappropriation rose by 18.6 per cent on the previous year, reaching a five-year high. They accounted for 17.8 per cent of all permanently lost vehicles. A vehicle is considered permanently lost through misappropriation if, for example, hire cars are not returned at the end of the hire period or leased vehicles are sold without the lessor’s consent.
Thefts of larger vehicles also increased. The number of stolen trucks rose by 48 per cent to 1009 cases in 2023. This was mainly due to a series of thefts of small trucks in Berlin.
The number of motorhomes stolen permanently in 2023 (469) was almost unchanged from the previous year (462), although the number of motorhome registrations has risen sharply since 2020. However, due to the high profit potential, motorhomes are likely to remain a focus for international criminal groups.
The number of registered suspects in vehicle crime rose by 10.2 per cent last year to 19,660. The majority of offenders operate in organised groups. The members usually specialise in different areas of vehicle theft, i.e. they divide the theft, trade and transport to possible sales markets among themselves. 10,699 of the suspects were German citizens.
This corresponds to a share of 54.4 per cent. 8,961 suspects were foreign nationals. Eastern Europe remains an important destination and transit region for international vehicle theft. Turkey is a major transit country for vehicles stolen or misappropriated in Germany to the Middle East. From there the vehicles are transported by land and in overseas containers.
The United Arab Emirates is a particularly important market for high-value vehicles and vehicle parts stolen in Germany. European ports are the main departure points for containerised vehicle shipments to North and West Africa.
Various methods are used to steal the vehicles. For example, police are increasingly seeing travelling groups of criminals committing burglaries, stealing vehicle keys and then stealing the vehicle belonging to them (so-called homejacking). Alternatively, they use technical aids. These include ‘radio range extenders’, which allow vehicles with keyless entry systems to be opened from a greater distance, or defeating the immobiliser and making new car keys with the appropriate coding.
If a vehicle is stolen, the police initiate an asset search. The number of property search hits abroad for German vehicle alerts, including parts, increased significantly from 2,565 in 2022 to 4,662 in 2023, an increase of 81.8 percent compared to the previous year.
The number of German search hits on foreign vehicle alerts also increased significantly by 26.6 percent to 3,027 compared to 2,391 in the previous year. One reason for the increased number of hits could be the temporary intensification of border controls in 2023 as a measure against smuggling crime.
Combating the various forms of vehicle crime requires close cooperation between the police and other authorities and institutions, including non-police agencies, at both national and international level. In particular, close cooperation between law enforcement authorities and vehicle manufacturers is essential to effectively combat this form of property crime, which is usually organised on an international scale.
