How police are fighting back against luxury car smugglers who export their spoils

Cars
Twenty-five high-end cars were recovered and returned to their rightful British owners - NaVCIS

In a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Southampton sit 25 high-end cars. When they were stolen seven years ago, as part of a finance fraud, the police said they were worth an eye-watering £6.5 million. Now, after spending the intervening period in Thailand, their value is a fraction of that. The haul is part of a car theft epidemic that shows no sign of abating – but their presence in Southampton represents a significant triumph for British policing.

The cars are like an enthusiast’s dream garage: Lamborghini Huracan Spyder, three BMW M4s, three Nissan GT-Rs, two Porsche 718 Boxsters, a 718 Cayman, a Range Rover, a Mercedes-AMG G 63, a Ford Mustang Convertible… The list goes on.

In total, 35 cars were stolen to order for the right-hand-drive Thai market, where the wealthy pay a premium for luxury motors. Only 30 have so far been repatriated, including the 25 on display in Southampton. Criminals involved in the scam obtained the cars on finance from legitimate UK dealerships. They then passed the motors on via middlemen to the masterminds behind the crime, who shipped them to Bangkok. There they were sold to unsuspecting buyers through Thai dealerships.

“It was a long-winded trail that led us to finally repatriating the cars seven years later,” Sharon Naughton, the head of the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), said. “We have officers at Southampton, Felixstowe, London Gateway and Tilbury. They saw a container at Southampton whose manifest listed two Mercedes going to Singapore, then Thailand.”

Criminals obtained the cars on finance from legitimate UK dealerships
Criminals obtained the cars on finance from legitimate UK dealerships - NaVCIS

Further investigation by NaVCIS discovered that containers with more cars, which were stolen in the same way by the same gang, had been air-freighted to Thailand from Heathrow Airport. It was the beginning of Operation Titanium (NaVCIS pronounces it Thai-tanium).

Without realising that the cars had been stolen in the UK, Thai authorities began investigating the man behind the crime for undervaluing the cars that he was importing. “He was just making pure profit,” Naughton said. “The criminals were so efficient, the first the finance companies here knew of the crime was when we told them their cars were in Thailand.”

Organised gangs: a formidable foe

Police believe that organised crime gangs are responsible for about four in five car thefts in the UK. Asst Chief Constable Jenny Sims is the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) lead on car crime. She told us: “Organised crime is significant. Well over half of stolen vehicles are used in other areas of crime such as drug offences. We recover fewer vehicles each year because we know they’re going abroad.”

NaVCIS recorded a 29 per cent increase in stolen vehicles being shipped through UK ports in the second quarter of 2024. It believes that the 10 to 15 cars it recovers a week are just the tip of the iceberg.

In September, Operation Alliance, which involved various law enforcement agencies, recovered 325 vehicles, plus parts worth an estimated £4 million. It led to 196 arrests.

“In terms of what we have recovered, we know about 30 per cent of the stolen vehicles going abroad end up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The second most popular destination is the United Arab Emirates,” Sims added.

Police are hitting back

Astonishingly, Sims’ NPCC role is carried out in her spare time. Sims has been working to change the fact that there are 130,000 cars stolen in the UK each year. The result of this work is the Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership (VCRP), which combines multiple groups inside the police and beyond, including car manufacturers.

With the undisclosed budget that she has secured, Sims has employed Mark Kameen, a retired police officer who has a background in serious organised crime. She said: “I think this is a launch pad to deliver boots on the ground to tackle car crime because people will be able to buy into the partnership and see this isn’t just vehicle crime: we’re up against serious organised criminals.”

NaVCIS is the UK’s only privately funded police unit with a budget from the Finance and Leasing Association. It, too, relies on a handful of retired police officers. But Naughton is keen to dispel the notion that this is in the vein of the New Tricks TV series. “I’m taking advantage of the knowledge, skill and experience of police officers who’ve had 30 years on the job,” she says.

“And they don’t cost the taxpayers a penny. The way the world is now, companies realise that if they want a premium service, they have to pay for it. You still get the service if you don’t go private but when finance companies pay for an enhanced service, they know it pays dividends,” she adds.

Shipping containers are big problem

Currently anyone can pay £2,000 to £3,000 (£5,000 for airfreight) for a shipping container and put anything inside. “They don’t even have to be honest on the manifest about what’s in the container,” said Steve Poole, a NaVCIS vehicle inspector at Southampton port.

“When you think that the biggest boats can carry more than 20,000 containers and tens of thousands of containers leave our ports daily with minimal regulation, we really are looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Even if Poole and his colleagues do open a container, they might be greeted with a pile of mattresses or sofas. “You pull those out and behind them you might find two or three stolen cars. We then have to pay to dispose of the mattresses…” he says ruefully.

Stolen cars are sometimes hidden behind mattresses and sofas
Stolen cars are sometimes hidden behind mattresses and sofas - NaVCIS

Once a container has been opened, the work really begins. Nick Sawdon, a NaVCIS officer, says: “We’ll try to find out where, when and how the cars were stolen. We need to find out who got the shipping container and where it came from. The number of cars we’re recovering is increasing and we’re improving our intelligence all the time.”

Unable to make arrests or interview suspects, the NaVCIS officers then pass their findings on to the force in the area where they believe that the car was stolen. “We have to package up the investigation and sell it to the police,” investigator Mark Haughlan says. “When I look at stolen cars, I just see lumps of money because that’s what they are to the criminals. Three Range Rovers in a container: that’s £200,000.”

And the cars in the Southampton warehouse? They will be returned to the finance companies that were tricked out of them seven years ago. “I’m sure any money they can get back for them will be welcome,” Sawdon says.