Dublin motorists are more than twice as likely to have their cars stolen than their provincial counterparts, new figures show.
The Dublin vehicle theft rate, at 2.2 per cent, was more than double that recorded in any other region. Next was the Mid-East region at 1.3 per cent, while the Border region reported the smallest level of vehicle theft at 0.4 per cent. More than two thirds, 67.5 per cent, of the vehicles taken across the State were recovered.
However, there was some good news from the figures. Overall figures show a drop of 2,000 vehicle thefts from 14,600 to 12,600, during a period of sustained growth in new car sales.
Data from the Central Statisitcs Office Quarterly National Household Survey carried out last year shows that more than one per cent of households with a vehicle said it had been stolen in the 12 months preceding the survey.
Of those vehicles that were broken into, 28.5 per cent were parked either in a garage, shed, driveway or yard. More than 11 per cent were parked in a car park in a town or city.
Anecdotal evidence suggests there has also been an increase in the number of house break-ins by car thieves searching for the car keys.
Recently a customer at Rathdown Motors in Terenure, Dublin, had a Chrysler Crossfire for a test drive. She parked it outside her house for the night. In the early hours of the morning thieves removed a pane of glass from the front door and entered the house. The customer awoke to find two men in the hall who ordered her back to her bedroom. They stole the car, which was recovered several days later in Ballymount industrial estate.
Meanwhile, theft from vehicles was more prevalent than vehicle theft, with 3.5 per cent of car-owning households reporting at least one such incident during the previous year.
Cars remained the favourite target for vandals, with vehicle damage accounting for more than 50 per cent of all types of vandalism reported by those surveyed in 2003.
