Car theft has changed a lot over the past few years, and not in a good way. Nearly two-thirds of all stolen cars in England and Wales are now taken without a single smashed window or forced door. Instead, thieves are using high-tech methods to hack into vehicles with keyless entry – the kind that unlocks when you walk up to your car with the key in your pocket.
According to data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), shared by RTA Law, 58% of car thefts between March 2023 and March 2024 involved criminals using tech to clone or hijack signals from keyfobs. It’s a big jump from just a few years ago – back in 2019, only 14% of thefts were carried out this way.
The trend is even worse in places like London, where keyless tech is more common. The Met Police estimate that 60% of car thefts in the capital involve signal-hacking methods, compared to around 40% nationwide.
What’s driving this change? More new cars now come with keyless systems as standard, which makes life easier for drivers – but also for thieves. Old-school methods like smashing a window or hotwiring are on the way out (they now account for just 4% of thefts), replaced by techniques like relay attacks and signal jamming.
Rod Mitchell from RTA Law called the situation “shocking” and urged drivers to stay one step ahead. One simple way to protect yourself? Store your keys in a Faraday pouch – it blocks the signal so no one nearby can clone it. You can also switch off the keyless feature entirely on some models.
It’s worth noting that the CSEW data is based on a small number of cases (just 52 incidents for that year), so while it helps show a trend, it’s not the full picture. And since not everyone knows exactly how their car was broken into, the numbers may not be 100% accurate.
Still, the threat is real. The Government has recently proposed new laws that would make it illegal to own the devices used for this kind of crime – not just use them. Right now, owning a signal jammer isn’t necessarily a crime, even though using one is. That could soon change. Anyone caught with this tech will need to prove it’s for a legitimate reason – like boosting mobile signal in remote areas.
Labour’s Minister for Policing, Dame Diana Johnson, summed it up: “These thefts have a devastating effect on victims, who need their vehicles to go about their everyday lives. We are aware of the real concerns people feel with the use of these electronic devices being so prolific.”
So if your car has keyless entry, it might be time to think twice about how secure it really is.
