Swift case of my stolen catalytic converter is a sad indictment of modern policing

DOMINIC LAWSON: The swiftly closed case of my stolen catalytic converter is a sad indictment of modern-day policing

By Dominic Lawson for the Daily Mail

22:33 04 Jun 2023, up to date 22:45 04 Jun 2023

This could also be farewell, outdated pal. I seek advice from my 15-year-old Lexus RX petrol hybrid. It has over 123,000 miles on the clock, however I nonetheless take pleasure in the way in which it unfailingly begins in all situations and the silent, vibration-free consolation of each journey.

Or no less than I did till ten days in the past, once I turned on the engine and it made a noise like a tractor. I turned it off and began it once more. Same monstrous roar.

This was within the automobile park of Stonegate station in East Sussex — about a quarter of an hour’s drive from our house. Rather longer, on this event, because it struggled to rise up the hills en route, the engine’s noise changing into deafening. At occasions, I assumed it would not make it.

My guess was that one thing horrible had occurred to the exhaust — although I could not assume how that might have been the case, when it had pushed completely on the way in which to the station two days earlier, and been parked there since then.

The fact was revealed as quickly as our fantastic native storage mechanic, Matt, got here spherical. He emerged from below the automobile and mentioned: ‘It’s what I assumed. Your catalytic converter has been stolen, they usually’ve torn by way of the exhaust to take away it.’

Gangsters

Add me to the spiralling statistic of automobile homeowners dealing with what may very well be 1000’s of kilos in prices, and presumably the write-off of their car, as a end result of the gangs who’ve been stealing catalytic converters in each half of the nation — and with little or no likelihood of being caught, not to mention prosecuted.

The purpose for all these thefts is the valuable metals within the catalytic converters. The platinum, palladium and rhodium inside them are key to their capability to restrict the emissions of noxious components from the exhaust.

But these valuable metals are, properly, valuable: and they are often bought to be used in numerous different methods. The Most worthy of all, rhodium, can go for 1000’s of kilos an oz.

As I’ve now realized, my automobile would have been prime on the hit record for these gangsters. According to the motoring web site Parkers: ‘The UK’s most focused fashions are petrol hybrid vehicles, notably Toyota and Lexus.’ Apparently, the rhodium, palladium and platinum inside their catalytic converters ‘are normally preserved a lot higher than on different sorts of autos’.

Matt mentioned he thought the fee of repairing the automobile and getting the brand new elements could be no less than £2,000 — which is in all probability not a lot lower than the car’s trade-in worth.

When my spouse rang the insurance coverage firm, they steered that we might lose our no-claims bonus if she requested them to cowl the prices — on the grounds that ‘we do not have somebody to assert in opposition to’.

Well, no, the gangsters weren’t going to offer us their particulars. But after my spouse protested (forcibly), the insurance coverage firm relented: we might preserve our no-claims bonus.

But our major concern was to get the police on the case. Apart from our personal loss, it appeared greater than doubtless that different vehicles had been vandalised in the identical means, on the identical time, and on the identical place.

The chap despatched from the insurance coverage firm to choose up our car mentioned he had just lately been concerned in a case the place 16 vehicles had had their catalytic converters stolen all in the identical incident in a grocery store automobile park (which is extraordinary, given that might in all probability have been in broad daylight).

So I phoned Sussex Police, giving all of them the small print, and added that I might be getting in contact with the folks chargeable for the station automobile park, to get them to look by way of CCTV footage (the place is festooned with these cameras).

The policewoman answering my name was charming however, on this level, dismissive, in a world-weary means: ‘They in all probability will not comply with undergo days of movie.’

Well, I mentioned, we’re nonetheless going to ask them.

It turned out we couldn’t do that instantly, however the request needed to come by way of our insurance coverage firm, to Southeastern Railway Customer Services. That, I hope, is what is going to now occur.

Busy

In one respect, the police have been very swift to behave. Barely a week after I reported the incident, I obtained a letter from Chief Superintendent Jo Banks of Sussex Police. Its second paragraph learn: ‘Having fastidiously thought of the obtainable data, we’re sadly unable to research additional on this event. This now signifies that your report is thought of closed.’

The letter went on to tell me that ‘individuals who have been victims of crime typically discover it useful to have help coping with their expertise. On the reverse of this letter you’ll discover recommendation that you could be discover useful’.

This was, of course, a bog-standard professional forma letter, which solely gave the impression to be private to me and this incident. I do not consider for a minute that Sussex Police had ‘fastidiously thought of’ the knowledge I gave them, or that there was the slightest chance they might have pursued the matter.

My interpretation of the true that means of ‘we’re sadly unable to research additional on this event’ is: ‘We do not accord any precedence to incidents like this; frankly, we’re too busy with different stuff to spend any time worrying concerning the gang who did this to your automobile.’

To be honest, the letter showing to come back from Superintendent Banks did say: ‘Your report has been formally recorded and can stay as a everlasting file which we will reopen if new data or proof involves mild.’

Which, in concept, would come with any CCTV footage which can emerge — if Southeastern Railway Customer Services, opposite to the resigned view of the one who spoke to me from Sussex Police, truly take the difficulty to undergo it. But what are the possibilities?

This is not a specific criticism of my native police. Six months in the past, following Freedom of Information requests to police forces by the Liberal Democrat celebration, it emerged that, of the greater than 50,000 thefts of catalytic converters reported between 2017 and 2021, fewer than 550 of these incidents resulted in anybody being charged — a charge of simply 1 per cent.

Some of the largest forces, equivalent to West Midlands and Greater Manchester, didn’t even hassle to reply totally to the Freedom of Information request; however of people who did, there have been a quantity who recorded no prices in any respect (together with Hertfordshire and South Yorkshire).

Insult

I’m not arguing that issues are getting a lot worse, in phrases of police coping with thefts. It has been horrible for a very long time. When I referred to as my sister Nigella to moan about this, she replied: ‘You sound like John.’ She was referring to her late husband, John Diamond, who in 1993 had his beloved classic Harley Davidson stolen from outdoors their London house, the villains having minimize by way of a wrought iron railing to take away his delight and pleasure.

John had an eyewitness account of the theft (from a neighbour) and likewise gave the identify of ‘the proprietor of a dodgy bike store in South London who knew I owned the bike, knew the place I lived, and who had, I knew, associates in these nations to which stolen Harleys are normally shipped’.

John received the same old ‘case closed’ letter, saying the crime had been ‘investigated’. But he then established that the police had not spoken to the eyewitness and had made no try even to contact the ‘dodgy bike store’ whose particulars he had given them.

As John wrote on the time: ‘To be advised that the case had been investigated, which was a patent lie, added insult to harm’.

My personal case has none of my late brother-in-law’s pathos. With any luck I’ll get my trusty outdated automobile again, repaired.

But, to evaluate by the shortage of any problem from the police to the profitable enterprise mannequin of the catalytic converter-stealing gangs, I’d be a idiot ever to depart it in a single day once more on the railway station.