Ford cars top target for West Midlands thieves this year

Thieves in the West Midlands are targeting Ford vehicles most commonly this year, according to new data.

Statistics released by the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson, have revealed 1,557 vehicles produced by Ford have been stolen so far this year — a huge rise from the 489 thieved during the whole of 2015.

Following as the second-most sought after cars for theft were Audis, with 432 stolen in the West Midlands so far in 2019. Mercedes vehicles rounded out the top three with 529 taken illegally.

In total, 3,909 cars are said to have been stolen throughout the region so far in 2019 — more than half of 2018’s 7,542 total. An uptake in keyless entry technology has been blamed by Jamieson, describing anti-theft protection on such vehicles as a ‘disgrace’.

He said: “I’ve been saying for a long time now that manufacturers have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to vehicle security. It’s a disgrace that buyers are being sold cars with 19th-century levels of protection. The progress which car manufacturers are taking to prevent keyless thefts is far too slow.

“So far this year we have had 5,527 cars stolen. That’s over double the entire amount stolen in 2015. As keyless technology has grown in popularity more and more cars have vanished from driveways as their owners sleep. Some vehicles are being stolen by criminals in seconds.”

An investigation by motoring publication What Car? earlier this month revealed a number of new cars fitted with keyless technology could be stolen within 10 seconds with the use of signal relay technology.

A Ford spokesperson said: “Ford takes vehicle security seriously and continuously invests in technology to deter theft of, and from, our vehicles.

“This year, we have introduced new security protection on the UK’s two top-selling cars in Fiesta and Focus – now available with keyless entry fobs as standard which block illegal hacking when not in use.”