Reflections on Caravan Security After 4 Men Are Jailed For Serious Caravan Theft

On the 8^th March 2010 four men were jailed for their part in grand scale caravan theft. The four men, all part of the same family, were discovered to be in possession of £700,000 worth of stolen caravans and motor homes, money and jewellery.  The complete scale of their crimes is unlikely to even be discovered.

The men were said to have been involved in the large scale conspiracy since 2004, they stole the caravans and motor homes from driveways and motorway service stations. That information should stand as advise to any caravan or motor home owner. Most people are more careful once they are on holiday, but criminals often target driveways and service stations as people sometimes do not take all of the necessary measures to secure their caravans or motor homes in these places.

Insurance officials reported that in 2007, the year that the men were arrested, caravan theft almost halved. It dropped from 848 to 454 in just one year. All of the men had previous convictions relating to the theft of caravans and the judge described the operation as “well organised”.

It is worth remembering to adequately secure your caravan. There are a number of tools available to you to make sure that you are not the victim of organised or opportunistic crime.

Firstly ensure that your caravan is registered with C.R.I.S. (The Caravan Registration and Identification Scheme). If your caravan was manufactured after 1992 it will already be part of the scheme, if it was manufactured before this date you can apply to have it registered. The scheme makes it significantly harder for criminals to sell on your caravan once it has been stolen. If you are buying a second hand caravan you should definitely perform a C.R.I.S. Check and ensure that it has all of the necessary documents.

There are lots of other security measures that you can undertake, including fitting alarm, electronic tracking devices, wheel clamps and hitch locks.

If you would like more detailed information about caravan security please follow this link to our earlier caravan security blog post.