Conference to tackle car crime

An average of 30 vehicles are stolen each day in NI

Two recovery vehicles have been damaged in an arson attack in west Belfast hours before the city hosted it's first ever car crime conference.

They were parked outside a house in the Altan area of Poleglass when they were attacked at 0550 BST on Thursday.

Vandals drove a so-called "runabout" car into the front of them and set it alight. Scorch damage was also caused to a nearby car.

Delegates at the Belfast conference were told that an average of 30 vehicles are stolen each day in Northern Ireland.

Almost half of them end up as so-called "ringer" vehicles which are stolen to sell on to unsuspecting buyers.

Car crime is a boom industry and so too is the market for anti-theft devices.

Every year, 10,000 vehicles are stolen across the province and the experts gathered in Belfast were aiming to co-ordinate a crack down.

The police report car crime is down by 38%, however, insurance premiums for motorists in the province remain among the UK's most expensive.

Building equipment theft is a another growth sector - one hire plant company alone lost a quarter of a million pounds worth of stock last year.

However, figures just published by the government show a sizeable drop in the number of cars stolen last year - a drop of almost 2,500 cars stolen in 2003 compared to 2002.

South Belfast showed the biggest improvement with the numbers of cars stolen cut by almost half.

Car crime figures
	2002		2003
	Stolen	Recovered	Stolen	Recovered
Antrim	236	190	193	157
Ards	274	227	149	120
Armagh	80	59	76	43
Ballymena	115	91	105	73
Ballymoney	31	24	31	24
Banbridge	64	52	82	56
Belfast East	537	465	299	248
Belfast North	751	666	472	389
Belfast South	1,349	1,198	709	592
Belfast West	615	563	392	338
Carrickfergus	102	95	64	58
Castlereagh	301	268	211	168
Coleraine	102	91	83	72
Cookstown	46	37	42	32
Craigavon	188	139	228	195
Down	307	267	203	153
Dungannon/S Tyrone	124	104	93	69
Fermanagh	78	65	74	64
Foyle	203	176	196	166
Larne	44	32	29	24
Limavady	37	34	31	30
Lisburn	694	581	559	454
Magherafelt	37	24	32	21
Moyle	38	34	23	22
Newry & Mourne	459	359	257	169
Newtownabbey	376	324	260	208
North Down	242	209	142	123
Omagh	75	61	55	46
Strabane	54	50	59	52
Total	7,559	6,485	5,149	4,166
Source: Hansard