Herts Police Recover Stolen Cars

31 high-value vehicles worth nearly £750,000 have been recovered as part of a three week operation at five ports across the country - including Felixstowe, Liverpool, Thames, Southampton and Tilbury.

The operation ran between April 26th and May 15th. It was led by officers from the Eastern Region Intelligence Unit, which involves officers from Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

The vehicles recovered have been stolen from locations in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Great Manchester, the West Midlands and the Metropolitan Police Service Area.

The majority of the vehicles recovered were high value prestige vehicles taken as part of dwelling burglaries where the victims home was burgled and the offenders stole the keys from the inside of the house before removing the vehicles from outside the house.

A similar operation carried out at Felixstowe last year for 6 weeks saw 73 vehicles recovered.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Lay was in charge of the operation, he's been telling Heart:

"The aim of this operation was to maximise the recover of stolen vehicles and plant being exported from ports across the country and we have seen some successes. Whilst there has been a decrease in the numbers recovered, this is positive. We believe that the previous operation has had a significant impact on reducing burglary and therefore reducing the numbers of vehicles being shipped out of the country.

"The theft and planned exportation of these vehicles is clearly the work of serious, organised crime groups who are using high value vehicles as collateral to finance and fund organised crime. The recovery of these vehicles will assist us in our efforts to bring such people to justice.

"People who have had their vehicles stolen have been extremely grateful to hear that their vehicle has been recovered. This is all thanks to the hard work of all those involved and I would like to thank everyone for their efforts."