Stolen Caravans

[Val & Frank]

What happens to a stolen caravan ?? is it sold on in the UK or exported etc.

With the Cris etching on all the windows I would think it expensive to change all of them, and then you would have a van without any markings. Which would be a little sus if you saw one on a site. It amazes me that on a small forum like this I have read about 5 vans being stolen in a couple of months. No wonder the CC want £500+ to insure our new van.I am also surprised that insurance companies do not do more to track down these thieves.

Val & Frank

 

[Robtel]

Some years ago there was an article in one of the caravan mags where a writer accompanied police officer on an organised raid on a travellers site. Several caravans were quickly identified as being stolen but the police withdrew to avoid further confrontation with residents on the site.

The travelling community regularly get blamed for dealing in stolen vans but I don't know if this can be verified or not. I have also heard that stolens vans are often transported to Ireland very soon after being stolen and resold there but again don't know how true this is.

In all the time I have been caravanning I have heard of many vans being stolen but cannot recall one instance where someone was prosecuted for stealing a van. Not that they would be severely dealt with anyway,

Robert

 

[MONKEY1]

Frank,

I've often wondered the same; however our Van is "German" and has no CRIS markings - however it came from a dealer in Holland. One thing I do know is that it came with a full registration document and copies of the old MOT's etc.

If you were to replace every window on a van it would cost at least

 

[PC_5119929]

One has to assume that the vans are stolen for a purpose and are not going to end up in a dealers for servicing and have cris numbers checked.

Without pointing a finger to much, when vans have been stolen in our home area what little evidence there is and the police point to one sector.

 

[ann_5067503]

our caravan was stolen and recovered however written off by the insurance it was then sold to a broker in the Midlands

 

[Angus1]

It will always be easier to sell a dodgy van if it has an `identity`.

Our van is an older `pre-CRIS` model, and a few years ago we decided to venture to Ireland (absolutely loathed everything about the place and couldn`t get home fast enough, but thats by-the-by).

Parked at the front of the queue at Holyhead for the ferry I walked round my outfit (as you do) to check everything was O.K (which it was), we were instructed to pull forward to be `checked-in`.Whilst being asked a series of inane questions (are you carrying any arms or explosives?, Do you know the identity of the passengers in the vehicle? etc.) a couple of `security` men inspected my outfit. On pulling on to the ferry, I again walked around my outfit as a final check to find the manufacturers plate had been removed by a screwdriver or similar being forced behind it, levering the rivets out of the aluminium panelling.

I brought this to the attention of deck staff who told me to contact the ferry company offices.

Upon doing this, I was instructed to get a replacement which the ferry company would,and did,pay for. The attitude of the staff and the willingness to pay for a replacement suggests that this may not have been an isolated incident. Older vanners beware! Someone probably has a cloned ABI Transtar out there.

 

[Jackie_374224453]

We had our first caravan stolen from our driveway Feb 2005. We replaced it with same as, brand new Coachman 530/4 which was stolen from our driveway 25th July 2006 in the afternoon.(Wakefield) This time we had CCTV..three perpetrators can be clearly heard and seen taking our van in less than 10 minutes. They cut off (with oxy-acetaline) or bash off hitch lock, wheel clamp, security post in the ground, corner stady locks and disable the alarm with professioanl ease and with confidence - that they have nothing to fear of being seen and only a remote possibility of being caught or the crime pro-actively detected. Last time my son and I combed the garden until we found a cigarette butt clearly left by someone who should not have been on our property! After months of hassle from us, the police finally tested the 'butt' for DNA and this led straight to the perpetrator..a traveller from Leeds. In May of this year he received 6 months in prison. Hopefully the CCTV will lead again in due course this time to the offenders. This is organised, professional, high value crime. -Leaving untold misery and expense (our caravan is our weekend home, which we work very hard to pay for). Hazel Blears has responded to the concerns that some MPs are currently raising in the House of Commons to the effect that she beleives that both the policing response and sentencing is appropriate in cases of caravan crime. Having personal experience of the devastation that stolen caravans cause (not the mention the expense) and the knowledge that they, the thieves are prepared to maim (and perhaps further?) to commit thiese crimes, I don't beleive that it is. If your experience is similar to mine, please keep posting and write personally to Hazel Blears c/o the House of Commons. I cannot think of any other group of organised criminals who feel so confident that there is so little prospect of them being brought to justice that they commit these crimes in broad daylight, caring little who sees them and knowing that the criminal justice system simply isn't interested in pursuing them. We owners can deter through security devices, but the real deterrent would be when those committing the crimes stand a real chance of being cuaght and prosecuted.

 

[Ian.L]

We had our first caravan stolen from our driveway Feb 2005. We replaced it with same as, brand new Coachman 530/4 which was stolen from our driveway 25th July 2006 in the afternoon.(Wakefield) This time we had CCTV..three perpetrators can be clearly heard and seen taking our van in less than 10 minutes. They cut off (with oxy-acetaline) or bash off hitch lock, wheel clamp, security post in the ground, corner stady locks and disable the alarm with professioanl ease and with confidence - that they have nothing to fear of being seen and only a remote possibility of being caught or the crime pro-actively detected. Last time my son and I combed the garden until we found a cigarette butt clearly left by someone who should not have been on our property! After months of hassle from us, the police finally tested the 'butt' for DNA and this led straight to the perpetrator..a traveller from Leeds. In May of this year he received 6 months in prison. Hopefully the CCTV will lead again in due course this time to the offenders. This is organised, professional, high value crime. -Leaving untold misery and expense (our caravan is our weekend home, which we work very hard to pay for). Hazel Blears has responded to the concerns that some MPs are currently raising in the House of Commons to the effect that she beleives that both the policing response and sentencing is appropriate in cases of caravan crime. Having personal experience of the devastation that stolen caravans cause (not the mention the expense) and the knowledge that they, the thieves are prepared to maim (and perhaps further?) to commit thiese crimes, I don't beleive that it is. If your experience is similar to mine, please keep posting and write personally to Hazel Blears c/o the House of Commons. I cannot think of any other group of organised criminals who feel so confident that there is so little prospect of them being brought to justice that they commit these crimes in broad daylight, caring little who sees them and knowing that the criminal justice system simply isn't interested in pursuing them. We owners can deter through security devices, but the real deterrent would be when those committing the crimes stand a real chance of being cuaght and prosecuted.

Hi Jackie

Thats justice for you the police can't give a monkeys,these people anyway these are not people they are scum of the earth,I thought thats why us good people pay our counsil tax yet its in the prees every day that scum like these are getting away with it and it about time the MPs in this country done something for us we are the people who vote them in. All the best for the near future.

 

[Val & Frank]

Hi Jackie

Thats justice for you the police can't give a monkeys,these people anyway these are not people they are scum of the earth,I thought thats why us good people pay our counsil tax yet its in the prees every day that scum like these are getting away with it and it about time the MPs in this country done something for us we are the people who vote them in. All the best for the near future.

Just contact your MP at www.writetothem.com

They will provide an e-mail address for every MP in the land.

So complain don't sit back and moan

Val & Frank