THE 2017/18 financial year, annual crime statistics have revealed Durban North police are on the list of top 30 stations for most car thefts across the country.
The station was listed as 27th on with a 33 per cent increase in cases. According to the stats, last year the station recorded 264 cases but this year it has alarmingly jumped up to 352 cases.
It is a deeply concerning stat admits Durban North SAPS spokesman, Capt Raymond Deokaran, who says the station is doing everything it can to combat the trend.
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“In the last few months there has been a trend of syndicates targeting high-end vehicles and bakkies. We believe the vehicles are being smuggled out of the province and possibly the country. It is deeply concerning for us as the syndicate/s at work are targeting vehicles all over the area. It’s not limited to one specific area. We recently arrested suspects who had stolen vehicles in the area so we suspect there are new gangs operating.
“What the stats haven’t revealed is that we have been able to recover a large number of vehicles working with the various tracking and security companies. Having said that we are doing everything in our power to fight the scourge. We can’t reveal our initiatives, however we are working on several projects on combating the thefts,” he said.
Deokaran added there has been a mixture of remote jamming cases as well as criminals breaking windows to gain access to the vehicle or suspects damaging the lock.
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