What really happens to all the UK’s stolen cars and phones

A lucrative illegal trade in cars and their parts has driven a 74% increase in the number of vehicles stolen in England and Wales over the past 10 years.

The cars will often be “soaked”, left in a location for two or three days, and end up in a “chop shop” but some will follow stolen mobile phones and be shipped abroad.

What happens to stolen cars?

Car thieves in the “intricate £1.8 billion-a-year web of crime normally take several steps to maximise profits and avoid arrest”, and the first is usually “soaking”, said the Daily Mail. After leaving the crime scene, the thieves will generally abandon the car for two or three days at a predetermined location, to check whether it’s been fitted with a tracker.

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After that, they attach cloned number plates, which correspond to another car of the same make, model and colour, to avoid detection from automatic numberplate recognition system cameras.

Sometimes the car will be sold to drug dealers, armed robbers or gangsters. Or it might go to a so-called “chop shop”, where mechanics can “rapidly strip” the stolen car of lucrative parts, which “get sold on to unsuspecting consumers” who want to repair their own car.

The vehicles could also be shipped abroad. Stolen cars from the UK have been “found across the globe”, including in Russia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eastern Europe, Dubai, Thailand and Cyprus.

What happens to stolen phones?

Headlines and social media posts about mobile phones being snatched on Oxford Street have worried Londoners and visitors alike. Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police busted an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months, said the BBC.

After the number of phones stolen in London almost tripled in the last four years, from 28,609 in 2020 to 80,588 in 2024, the Met discovered that street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset. Stolen devices are being sold in China for up to £4,000 each, because they are “internet-enabled and more attractive for those trying to bypass censorship”.

What is being done about it?

The Met said personal robbery has decreased by 13% and theft is down 14% in London this year. Up to 80 more officers are joining the West End team to focus on offences such as phone robbery. But London Mayor Sadiq Khan said “coordinated global action” is needed to “shut down” the trade in stolen phones.

As for cars, the “days of hard-bitten detectives getting tip-offs from snouts over a pint” and then “raiding a seedy back-street garage” are “long gone”, said The Telegraph. Instead, police are turning to private companies staffed by former officers.

“We’re almost trying to alleviate the pressure on the police,” said Ahron Tolley from W4G. “I’m ex-police. We know the stresses and strains on the police in the UK to investigate crime.”