Police are cracking down on car key burglars after more than 300 vehicles were stolen from Nottinghamshire homes in the space of a year.
Gangs are cruising the city streets looking for Audis, Mercedes and BMWs parked in the drive and then burgling the house for the car keys.
Police have described it as 'organised crime' with a hierarchy of gang members working at stealing, stripping or selling the motor, sometimes overseas.
It has become a priority for Nottinghamshire Police's new burglary team, whose sole aim is to investigate the crime and disrupt and arrest suspects.
Police said in one recent case in the Nottingham area there was 12 burglaries in a 24 to 36 hour period where thieves attempted to gain entry into the homes to steal cars.
Detective Inspector Kayne Rukas, who leads the burglary team from St Ann's and Radford Road Police Stations, said: "Since the introduction of the burglary teams, car key burglaries are a priority for the team to investigate.
"There are people and groups of individuals who target houses in Nottinghamshire. They will drive into the area and walk around the streets or drive around the streets and they will look for vehicles they want to steal.
"Cars are not hot wired any more because the security is much improved. If people want to steal high-powered vehicles to sell or to strip the parts they need the key."
DI Rukas said cars are stolen for three purposes - to be used to commit further crimes such as robberies where they need fast getaway vehicles.
The second purpose is to 'clone the vehicle' by changing its number plates and then selling it overseas for a substantial amount.
The third purpose is to 'strip the vehicle of all its parts".
CRIME IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
He added: "You have got a lot of monies worth of vehicle that can be sold on. Some are sold to order. It is organised crime. It is a network, a chain of people, involved in this criminality.
"You have people on the ground that are stealing the vehicles and they drive it to a location where it is handed over and paid for.
"You have the person that breaks the car down that then hands it to another person who ships the vehicle out of the country or sells the parts on.
"There is profit being made by the organised crime group. Audis, BMWs, Mercedes - they are more sort after."
Police said that once the car is put on a cargo ship it is difficult to trace, but that in the majority of cases cars are "found and recovered".
"There is a haven of forensic opportunities when the police recover it," he added. "It provides us a great opportunity to identify the suspects. Stealing a car is fought with risks for suspects."
The burglary team use covert and overt ways of tracking vehicles, which includes Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and looking at patterns and trends.
The main hot spot crime areas recently include Wollaton, Mapperley and Radcliffe-on-Trent.
There was 377 house burglaries where a vehicle was stolen in Nottinghamshire from August 2017 to the end of July 2018.
This has now fallen to 308 from August 2018 to the end of July 2019.
Police said there has been an 18 percent reduction since the inception of the burglary team, which launched in April 2018.
One case in August saw the consequences of Mark Winfield's wave of crimes met with a prison sentence of more than three years.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Winfield was a prolific burglar with 26 offences of house burglary on his record.
His latest burglary was in Mansfield when he reached into a letter box and stole car keys to a British Gas Volkswagen Caddy van and a Honda Civic.
"If someone wants to steal your vehicle from your drive way they need the keys," DI Rukas added.
"They will break into your house and search for the car keys. Put your car keys in a place that can not be seen from the window.
"If they see them they will know it is going to be an easy target and can steal them very quickly.
"Put your car in a garage or out of sight and leave your car on a relatives' drive way when you go on holiday.
"A lot of burglaries are about insecurities - make sure your house is secure."
