By William Coleman
The industry has been in a real boom over the last 18 months, even winter has seem huge numbers of touring holiday makers, and does not look as though it will slow down anytime soon. As the demand and popularity grows so does the risk of theft or vandalism toward motorhomes and caravans.
Tracking specialist AMI Group is urging caravan and motorhome owners to enhance security this summer following reports that only 3%* of stolen caravans are successfully recovered (*Club Care Insurance figures).
Data from the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) indicates that there was a 54% increase in the number of caravan thefts last year compared to the previous year.
Peter Stockton, Operations Director of AMI Group said: “Caravans and motorhomes are more susceptible to theft in the summer months, whether they are parked on home driveways or parked at service stations. With the rise of the great British ‘staycation’, it is more important than even before for caravan and motorhome owners to remain vigilant and take proper measures to prevent thieves from taking advantage.
“We have noticed a marked increase in the number of owners protecting their caravans and motorhomes with tracking devices, so in the event that they are stolen, we can provide exact location data as to where they can be recovered from, potentially saving owners thousands of pounds. Having a tracking unit fitted could make the difference between an owner’s valuable caravan being taken and never seen again, to it being found and returned to its owner within hours of it being reported as stolen,” he continued.
Stolen caravans and motorhomes often ‘disappear’ into an illicit network of buyers and sellers, ending up for sale in classified adverts and online. When a caravan is found by the Police, it is common for all identifying marks to have been removed by thieves. Historically most thefts occur from home or commercial storage sites, but thefts can also occur from caravan sites, dealerships, repairers, car parks or lay-bys. Thieves do not necessarily target new caravans, in fact those that are about two or three years old are more likely to be stolen.
AMI Group offers a number of tracking devices ideal for protecting caravans and motorhomes against theft, such as the AT5 – a self-contained, battery operated tracking device which utilises state-of-the-art GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM (Global System for Mobile Frequency) and digitally encoded RF (Radio Frequency) technology. Tiny in size, it is covertly hidden with no aerials or antennas, so criminals don’t even realise it’s there. Even when stolen caravans are hidden in garages or shipping containers, AMI’s technology can be used to successfully recover them.
