Range Rover thefts: JLR boss wants action to tackle organised crime

JLR boss Adrian Mardell has called for an “urgent national conversation” about organised vehicle crime, calling on the government to invest further to crack down on gangs, even if that comes instead of tax cuts.

Concerns about the high theft of Range Rover vehicles have led to a reports from owners of a sharp increase in insurance rates.

Asked about the issue during a media call for JLR’s third-quarter financial results, Mardell launched a passionate defence of the safety of his firm’s cars, saying data suggesting a high theft rate of Range Rover and Land Rover Defender models has been exaggerated due to misreported data.

Mardell acknowledged that organised vehicle crime was “a serious issue in this country” that was “landing heavily on all [manufacturers]", including JLR.

He added: "Our clients are suffering from that, and most people in this country won’t like that, whether they’re suffering or not.”

But he insisted that many of the reports on the high theft rate of JLR vehicles was based on old or incomplete data that has been misinterpreted.

Citing the latest full year DVLA statistics for 2023, Mardell said: “Contrary to a widely repeated myth, the Range Rover does not feature in the top 10 vehicles in the UK stolen for calendar year 2023. It is not Britain's most stolen vehicle. There are no JLR models in the top three stolen vehicles in calendar year '23.”

The vehicle theft figures for 2023 show the Ford Fiesta was the UK’s most stolen car, ahead of the Ford Focus. The Range Rover Sport was fifth, with 1631 stolen, the Range Rover Evoque (1489 thefts) was sixth and the Discovery Sport (954) was 10th. Those numbers cover all cars on the road, regardless of age.

Mardell noted that the DVLA data shows a 27.2% year-on-year decline in Range Rover theft and a 28.6% decline in Range Rover Sport theft. He also cited data showing minimal thefts of the latest Range Rover and Defender models.

“For [the] Defender, since launch in 2019, only 130 cars have been stolen out of 45,200 vehicles, a rate of 0.3%,” said Mardell. “The Police National Computer shows only 0.08% of new Range Rovers – just 11 vehicles out of 12,800 vehicles which have been passed over to clients since launch two years ago – have been stolen. It's 15 for the new Range Rover Sport.

“I'm not sure which other brand could actually claim such a high level of security and a low level of theft.”

Mardell said the figures meant “there is no reason whatsoever why any insurance company should not gladly and readily insure those new vehicles – zero reason, in any part of this country.”

He added: “The insurance industry clearly are not using the information in the data, which is a consistent series of dialogues and messages we've had with that industry for the last six months. They are very slow to respond to data.”