A loophole in crime reporting that allows criminals to get away with cargo thefts from HGVs must be closed in order to save operators more than £700m a year, according to insurers.
Broker McCarron Coates said a major problem in investigating thefts is that a specific category of ‘freight crime’ does not exist in Home Office reporting figures and falls under ‘theft from vehicle’ instead, writes Chris Tindall.
And while it acknowledged that changing the reporting regime would be very difficult, there is a much easier way to flag up to vehicle crime experts that freight has been stolen. It is calling for a tag to be applied to police reports, which marks a cargo theft as a freight crime and not just a theft from a vehicle.
McCarron Coates said this is an option police forces have and it would enable the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NAVCIS) to identify cargo theft quickly and act on reports faster.
