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Car insurance customers told to stop leaving sat navs on show

29/05/07

Car insurance customers have been warned against leaving high-value items on display by a police officer in the south-east of England.

Police inspector David Osbourne of the Chiswick Safer Neighbourhoods team has issued the reminder after noting that there has been "a steady increase" in car crime in Chiswick over the past 12 weeks, reports the Richmond and Twickenham Times.

Outlining the driving force behind the problem, Mr Osbourne has explained that 70 per cent of thieves caught perpetrating car break-ins were aged between 16 and 30 years old.

And it appears that the primary targets of these youngsters are high-value goods that can be easily removed from the scene.

Satellite navigation systems (sat navs), laptops and mobile phones are all proving popular among thieves, police officers have indicated.

Consequently, Mr Osbourne has urged car insurance customers and other road users to take more time concealing these products from external view.

"Leaving stuff in cars like phones, sat navs and laptops is like a red rag to a bull and it only takes a second to break a window," he said.

"Thefts from cars are causing us problems in Chiswick at the moment."

Recently, car insurance customers were issued a host of vehicle crime-prevention tips, which could potentially help to protect their car insurance no-claims discounts.

Once again, Ian Haigh, Staffordshire police's Chase community and partnerships inspector, urged car insurance policyholders to hide items from view when leaving their vehicles.

In addition, he suggested that motorists should consider opening the glove compartment to show opportunist thieves that there are no high-value items held inside.